Ta'Kiya Young, 21, was SEVEN MONTHS pregnant when she was 'shot in the face' by cop - as furious 'black lives matter' protesters demand justice
Hundreds of people poured onto the city's streets to demand 'justice' on Sunday
By Laura Parnaby
Daily Mail
Sep 4, 2023
Hundreds of furious protesters marched through Columbus, Ohio, on Sunday night - the same city where mother-of-two Young was killed last month
Ta'Kiya Young, the Ohio mother who was fatally 'shot in the face' by a cop last month was seven months pregnant at the time, a close friend has revealed.
The 21-year-old mother of two little boys had been 'excited' to have her first daughter, according to her former high school teacher and close friend Malissa Thomas St Clair.
But both mother and baby were killed when a local cop shot through her windshield at a Kroger parking lot on August 24 - a shocking moment caught on their bodycam footage.
A witness who posted gruesome videos of medics trying to resuscitate Young and her unborn baby on the sidewalk shortly afterwards said she was 'shot in the face' - as footage seen by the Daily Mail appears to confirm.
Police have said the officers approached Young because they believed she had been shoplifting, though the family's lawyer denies she was involved in theft.
Ta'Kiya Young, 21, was pregnant when she was fatally shot by a cop while sat in her car in a Kroger parking lot at Blendon Township, northern Columbus, Ohio, on August 24 (Not correct! She was about to run down a cop when she was shot - ed.)
'The family of Ta'Kiya Young deserves to know who killed their daughter,' Young's high school teacher Malissa Thomas St Clair told DailyMail.com. (Pictured: Young as a schoolgirl, with St Clair)
The horrific incident in Blendon Township, northern Columbus, has caused an uproar in the local community and beyond.
Her longtime friend and former high school teacher St Clair, 48, told the Daily Mail that she has known Young since she was 11 years old and they became 'close friends' after she graduated.
St Clair revealed that Young had two sons aged three and five, and she had been 'excited' to welcome a baby girl in just two months time.
'Ta'Kiya was due at the start of November,' St Clair told the Daily Mail. 'She had a baby in her belly.
'She had already named her daughter, she already has two sons, and she was very much looking forward to becoming a mother of a daughter - that was something very special to her.'
The Ohio teacher said Young overcame 'adversity' in her younger years that 'could have made anybody else hardened' - but described her as 'joyous, engaging and hard-working'.
'She had a smile that would light up the room,' St Clair said. 'She helped others that were being bullied - that was her big thing. She would always stick up for the underdog.'
The high school teacher said Young confided in her when she fell pregnant with her first child five years ago.
Young was a mother to two young children and she was pregnant when she died. Her unborn child was also killed in the shooting
'When she was 16, she told me: "I'm pregnant - but I promise you I'm going to graduate high school and go to college",' St Clair recalled. 'And she did.
'It's a testament that she was a fighter through adversity. She cared about her children so much.'
St Clair said Young's family is still reeling from her death and they can't begin their grieving process until they know the name of the cop who killed her.
'The family of Ta'Kiya Young deserves to know who killed their daughter,' she said.
'I feel like it is unfair for the family not to know who the murderer is.'
St Clair said she did not support the cop's name going public if it would hurt his family, but stressed that Young's relatives had a right to know his name.
The high school teacher was also among protesters who spoke at a rally demanding 'justice' for Young in Goodale Park, north Columbus, on Sunday evening.
Speaking to the hundred-strong crowd at the demo, St Clair slammed people who have claimed Young 'used her vehicle as a weapon' against the officer who shot her.
St Clair (right) said Young (left) overcame 'adversity' in her younger years that 'could have made anybody else hardened' - but described her as 'joyous, engaging and hard-working'
'That vehicle was going no more than two miles an hour,' she said. 'That man (the cop) wouldn't have died from that miles per hour.
'She was getting out of the way because she knew she was going to die. She was trying to save her daughter's life.'
Several more speakers took to the stage, including event organizer Raman Obey, who blasted 'police violence'.
'We're out here because people have lost their lives due to police escalation, police militarization and overall police violence,' he said.
'And that added pressure of being pregnant - I can't even begin to imagine what she was thinking at that time... but it's not until that second police stepped in front of that car that it turned into a tragedy.
'That baby's last words were, "are you going to shoot me?'"
Another organizer, Emily Cole, pointed out that the cop who shot Young has not yet been named or arrested.
'They [police officers] get to hide their name and not face the community,' she said.
'These families get no justice, no accountability and they can't even sue because of qualified immunity.'
Organizers of the Sunday protest Raman Obey (right) and Emily Cole (left) made impassioned speeches on stage at Goodale Park on Sunday before protesters marched on the streets
Shocking bodycam footage shows
the moment one officer shoots through the front windshield - killing
Young and her unborn child - as her car began to roll slowly towards
him (Rolling? She was driving the car! - ed.)
After the park protest, the demonstrators' numbers swelled as they took to the streets chanting 'black lives matter' and 'no justice, no peace'.
Many carried banners bearing Young's name along with others killed by cops in America.
Young's family has called for the cop responsible for her death to be arrested, according to their lawyer.
Attorney Sean Walton said the bodycam video clearly shows that the shooting was unjustified.
'The video did nothing but confirm their fears that Ta'Kiya was murdered unjustifiably...and it was just heartbreaking for them to see Ta'Kiya having her life taken away under such ridiculous circumstances,' Walton told AP.
'Ta'Kiya's family is heartbroken.'
1 comment:
Haven't heard a lot about this, but the guilt could go either way based a few news articles. Could be the cop was threatening and she was trying to get away. Could be she was an idiot and got what she was asking for.
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