COLUMBUS, Ohio — The attorney for Ta’Kiya Young’s family spoke Tuesday about the indictment for the Blendon Township officer who fatally shot Young outside of a Kroger last year.
Officer Connor Grubb was indicted on four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault and two counts of involuntary manslaughter by a grand jury on Tuesday.
The family's attorney, Sean Walton, stood with the family in asking for justice in the death of Young.
"We thank the grand jury, but we insist that this is but a step, not the conclusion, for our collective journey towards justice for Ta’Kiya and her unborn daughter," Walton said.
Walton spoke about the response of the police department and the internal investigation that was launched following her death.
“To use Marsy’s Law to cloak officers from facing the consequences of their actions is an insult to every victim of police violence, an aversion of justice and moral accountability,” Walton said during the press conference.
Blendon Township Chief of Police John Belford released a statement following the grand jury’s decision saying that the victims’ rights provision in the Ohio Constitution and state law are mandatory.
“The law doesn’t leave law enforcement with any choice on whether or not to redact the names of potential crime victims unless the victim agrees to it,” Belford said. “We redacted his name as required by Ohio law until he was publicly identified by prosecutors after the grand jury’s decision.”
Walton said Blendon Township rushed to call Grubbs and his partner victims.
“To use the narrative that they could invoke Marsy’s Law, I think that shows that there are already fallacies in any internal investigation because from the beginning before there was any investigation, they had no problem indicating that from their belief -- despite what all of our eyes saw -- that there was some way Connor Grubbs was a victim,” Walton said. “I think that he should be terminated immediately. I think there should not be an internal investigation.”
Young's grandmother, who joined Walton at the press conference, said she's now raising Ta'Kiya's two sons and just celebrated what would have been her 22nd birthday.
"I would like to see him get a long sentence for taking her life and her baby's life. It's not fair that we don't have her, or the baby and he was running around a whole year with paid administrative leave," her grandmother said.
Walton said Grubb’s charges are warranted and that the officer should never have got his gun out or stepped in the path of the vehicle.
“We look at the split second of the car barely moving and his feet leaving the ground and I think that’s where the trial will play out.”
Brian Steel, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #9, expressed his disappointment with the grand jury's decision to indict Grubb.
“Like all law enforcement officers, Officer Grubb had to make a split decision, a reality all too familiar for those who serve to protect our communities. These decisions are made under extreme pressure and often in life-threatening situations, with the primary goal of safeguarding the general public and their own lives,” Steel said in a statement.
Attorney Mark Collins, who is representing Grubb, said that he anticipated the outcome, calling the grand jury process in Ohio “broken.”
“When viewed through the eyes of a reasonable police officer, the evidence will show that our client’s actions were justified, when there is video evidence that Officer Grubb was being hit by a moving vehicle. This case is not about if Connor Grubb made the decision to use deadly force, but why he made the decision to use deadly force,” Collins said in a statement.