Around 6:20 p.m. on August 24, 21-year-old Ta\u2019Kiya Young was outside of a Kroger in Blendon Township, Ohio, when she was accused by an employee of having previously shoplifted. Two police officers approached her vehicle and commanded her to get out. When Ta\u2019Kiya did not get out of her vehicle, one of the officers fired a gunshot through the front windshield, killing her. Young was pregnant and the fetus did not survive the shooting.<\/p>\n
On August 27, community members responded by gathering in front of the Kroger where Young was killed to demand justice and an end to police brutality. Family members attested to Young\u2019s character, as local police have vilified her as a \u201cthief\u201d and a \u201cdanger to others\u201d in a racist effort to justify taking her life.<\/p>\n
Nadine Young, Ta\u2019Kiya\u2019s great grandmother, said, \u201cShe was a lively little lady, a fireball, a prankster who loved her kids. She was so crazy about her kids. She was head over heels about having this baby \u2026 No matter what happened, they didn\u2019t have to take her life. There\u2019s so many ways they could\u2019ve handled it. They didn\u2019t have to take this baby and that baby\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Malissa Thomas St. Clair from Mothers of Murdered Children of Columbus was Young\u2019s high school teacher and had also taught another youth killed by police, Casey Goodson Jr<\/a>. She described Young\u2019s determination to live a good life, work hard and support her family, even in light of her first pregnancy at the age of 15: \u201cShe graduated high school and went on to college \u2026 Then she came back and said, \u2018I told you I would do it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Stacey Little, co-founder of the Central Ohio Freedom Fund, also described how Black mothers like Young are often targets of police brutality and incarceration, connecting this tragedy to reproductive justice and the right for Black mothers to live: \u201cAccountability doesn\u2019t equate a funeral \u2026 What gives anyone the right to take someone\u2019s life? \u2026 Where\u2019s [police] accountability with the preservation of life?\u201d<\/p>\n