A Blendon Township police officer fatally shot Ta’Kiya Young, 21, at a Kroger on Sunbury Road on Aug 24

Body camera footage showing the events leading up to a police officer fatally shooting a pregnant Black woman in Westerville, Ohio, was released to the public on Friday.

Ta’Kiya Young, a 21-year-old mother of two kids and pregnant with a third, went to a Kroger in the suburb of Blendon Township on Aug. 24, but never returned after she was suspected of shoplifting. Police approached Young outside the store, and she was ultimately shot and killed in the parking lot. Her unborn daughter did not survive.

Her family said the shooting “should have never ever, ever happened.” Police described Young’s death as an “unfortunate loss of life” but said she was accelerating her car toward an officer. 

The events leading up to the shooting were recorded on the Ohio officers’ bodycam, and the Blendon Township Police Department released the footage to set the record straight.

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Blendon Township Police Chief John Belford briefly recounted the events that transpired in a video statement the day after the shooting. The video released on Friday appeared to confirm his description.

The video, narrated by retired Sheriff Russ Martin, appears to show two Blendon Township officers who were initially at the scene helping someone who was locked out of their car.

In the video, a Kroger employee can be seen approaching the officers and informing them several people had stolen items from the store. The employee then points the officers to Young, who was sitting “in a Lexus sedan with no license tags parked in a handicapped spot right in front of the store,” Belford said.

The video shows one of the officers initially approaching the black Lexus and the other abandoning the initial locked vehicle to assist his partner. The second officer is seen circling the Lexus as the first officer can be heard instructing Young to get out of the vehicle.

A Blendon Township police officer begins speaking with Young through her driver window, instructing her to exit the vehicle. (Blendon Township Police Department)

A Blendon Township Police Department officer repeatedly bangs on the car door and window while instructing Young to comply. (Blendon Township Police Department)

As the first Blendon Township police officer speaks with Young, who is not adhering to the officer’s instructions, a second officer circles around to get in front of the vehicle. (Blendon Township Police Department)

Both officers can be heard on the video instructing her to stop multiple times and to exit the vehicle, but she appears noncompliant. The second officer also draws a gun, the video shows.

She can be heard shouting back, “What? Are you going to shoot me?” before she begins to put the car into gear and accelerate.

The police chief previously explained, “The officer who was directly in the path of the oncoming car fired one shot through the front windshield. The body camera footage I’ve reviewed also confirms the officer was directly in the path of the car.”

Two Blendon Township Police Department officers attempted to stop an alleged thief when she began driving away. (Blendon Township Police Department)

The pictures seems to confirm that explanation as it appears to show the officer at the front of the vehicle being dragged several feet, then firing a single shot through the windshield.

The names of the two officers, or their ages and races, have not been released. They are on paid administrative leave while the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation reviews the shooting, a standard procedure.

Police have not released further details on the shooting.

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Earlier in the week, before the video was publicly released, Young’s grandmother, Nadine, said the shooting “was just wrong.” 

“I’m a mess because it’s just tragic,” Nadine Young said Wednesday at a press conference, WSYX reported. “It shouldn’t have ever, ever, ever happened. She shouldn’t be gone. It was just wrong.”

She also described her granddaughter as family-oriented and loving, as well as an older sister and mother.

Young was expected to give birth to a daughter in November. The girl would have been the young family’s first as she was the mother of two young sons, ages 6 and 3. 

“She was so excited to have this little girl,” Nadine Young said. “She has her two little boys, but she was so fired up to have this girl. She is going to be so missed.”