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The Ohio police officer who shot and killed Ta’Kiya Young was acquitted Friday on all counts, including murder.

Young was an excited mom of two little boys, and pregnant with her first daughter, when she encountered Connor Grubb at a Kroger supermarket parking lot on Aug. 24, 2023. She was accused of shoplifting by a store employee and tried to flee the parking lot in her car, according to police body camera footage. A single shot was fired.   

On Friday, Young’s grandmother, Nadine Young, collapsed into sobs at the decision, shouting “It’s not right! This is not right!”

Sean Walton, an attorney for the Young family, called the outcome “an American tragedy,” lamenting what he said is a dual system of justice in the U.S., according to the Associated Press. The family’s legal team vowed to continue its fight in civil court, where her estate sued the township and police chief over department practices in August.

Young was gunned down by Grubb 23 days after her 21st birthday. Her unborn baby was due that November 2023. 

Last year, a Franklin County grand jury indicted Grubb on four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault, and two counts of involuntary manslaughter after evaluating evidence for two days, prosecutors said. Blendon Township Police Chief John Belford said in a video statement that his “disciplinary process” began

Montgomery County Prosecuting Attorney Mat Heck Jr.’s office was called in by Franklin County’s outgoing chief prosecutor, Anthony Pierson, to handle Young’s case. Blendon Township is a northeast suburb of Columbus and is located in Franklin County. 

Grubb was the fourth Franklin County law enforcement officer to be indicted in the death of a Black person since 2020, and the second prosecuted by a special prosecutor — an increased effort in recent years to avoid potential biases between police officers and prosecutors. 

“We thank the grand jury, but we insist that this is but a step, not the conclusion, of our collective journey towards justice for Ta’Kiya and her unborn daughter,” Sean Walton, the attorney for Young’s family, wrote in a statement at the time of the indictment.

The announcement gave advocates like Karla White Carey, whose hometown is Columbus, hope for other counties to follow their lead with holding police officers accountable. But she was concerned that with terms like “federal immunity” floating around, police accountability may look completely different after Nov. 5. Federal immunity is a term misused by President Donald Trump when referring to “qualified immunity” — a civil liability protection for law enforcement officers — to which he has said police should be “immune from prosecution.”

“But I hope that what we are doing here, there is a light that we can shine on it, and show people that it is possible to indict these officers. It is possible to hold them accountable,” Carey told Capital B last year. “When you look at it nationwide, this is a drop in the bucket because we really don’t see this. We see more payouts to the families than we actually see accountability of the officers.”

On a national scale, there have been 3,898 Black people killed during an encounter with law enforcement since 2013, and nearly 80% of those cases have not had any charges filed, according to the database. 

‘A very strong message’

“The actions that led to the death of Ta’Kiya — the unnecessary aggression, the chilling commands that amounted to ‘comply or die’ — were there for us all to witness in dreadful clarity,” Walton’s 2024 statement read. “Ta’Kiya’s life and that of her daughter were extinguished in an act of brutality, becoming yet another symbol of the urgent need for reform in police conduct and accountability.”

Carey said she was “overjoyed” for Young’s grandmothers, Danielle Rivers and Nadine Young, when they learned about the grand jury’s decision. Ta’Kiya Young’s sons are in their great-grandmothers’ custody — Young’s mother passed away a year prior, the Associated Press reported.

“It’s disheartening to speak to families across the country who go through this process and never see an ounce of accountability,” Carey said. “This decision is a step in the right direction. I think it is sending a very strong message to our police officers here in Franklin County.”

While the families of Young, Casey Goodson, 23; Andre Hill, 47; and Donovan Lewis, 20, have received a small degree of justice with grand jury indictments, there have been 17 other Black people killed by a law enforcement officer in Franklin County since 2020, according to the Mapping Police Violence database. That consists of 11 heartbroken families who learned that  “no known charges” were filed, and six waiting for their loved one’s investigation to conclude, hopefully, with positive results.

Residents previously told Capital B that they didn’t support Pierson because of his own failure as a special prosecutor to land an indictment against eight Akron police officers who killed Jayland Walker in June 2022 during an alleged traffic violation. Police fired 94 bullets at Walker, hitting him nearly 50 times. The residents were also not keen on Pierson passing high-profile cases to other prosecutor offices to handle. 

Pierson lost in the Democratic primaries in March to Shayla Favors, who went on to defeat Republican John Rutan in the general election last November.

“The families say, ‘We want justice,’” Carey said. “For me, you’ll never get justice, because that would mean bringing your loved one back. The next best thing is to hold these officers accountable for their actions.”