Ta'Kiya Young's grandmother reflects after Ohio officer found not guilty in her death
The grandmother of Ta'Kiya Young, the 21-year-old pregnant Black woman who was shot and killed by an Ohio police officer, spoke out for the first time on Wednesday after a jury found the officer not guilty of murder last week.
Connor Grubb of the Blendon Township Police Department was cleared of murder, involuntary manslaughter and felonious assault last Friday in Ta'Kiya Young's death after she was suspected of shoplifting liquor and driving her vehicle in the officer's direction on Aug. 24, 2023.
"God going to get the final word," Nadine Young told ABC News Live's Diane Macedo in an exclusive interview on Wednesday. "I mean, he got to go before God with all of what he did. It's just so hurtful that it didn't happen in the court system."
Young was seven months pregnant at the time of the incident in a Kroger grocery store parking lot in Blendon Township, Ohio, according to her grandmother. Her unborn child also died.
"He's got to deal with this the rest of his life," Nadine Young said of Grubb on Wednesday. "He's got to deal with what he did."
After the verdict, Grubb hugged his attorneys and walked out of the court room with his family after getting the judge's permission.
"On behalf of Connor, his family, they thank all the jurors for their service," Mark Collins, Grubb's attorney, said at a press conference last week after the verdict. "He took a life on duty and realized another's life after that. To walk around with that -- and that is a difficult situation."
Grubb did not attend the press conference.
Sean Walton, Jr., the Young's family attorney, said in a press conference after the verdict last week that the family will pursue a civil lawsuit that will prove what the jury could not find beyond a reasonable doubt in the criminal case.
Walton joined Nadine Young in speaking to ABC News Live on Wednesday.
"The car was slow moving," Walton said in reference to Ta'Kiya Young's vehicle. "There was no reason why Conor Grubb should have had to shoot to preserve his own life, and he took two lives that day. So our goal is to make sure that the jury [in the potential civil trial] understands that this is a tragedy that was completely unavoidable."
Grubb said in a statement read by the prosecution during the trial that he pointed his gun at Ta'Kiya Young after she failed to comply with his partner's commands to get out of the vehicle. He said he felt the car strike his legs and start to lift his body off the ground.
Body camera video shows Ta'Kiya Young refusing to leave the car despite orders from officers after she was suspected of stealing alcohol from the Kroger store. Grubb's partner was on the driver's side while Grubb stood directly in front of the vehicle.
Ta'Kiya Young can be heard protesting with the officers in body camera video during the encounter. The officers can be heard yelling at her to get out of the vehicle. She asked them, "Are you going to shoot me?"
The video shows Ta'Kiya Young turned the steering wheel to the right and rolled forward in an apparent attempt to drive away, Grubb was already standing in front of the vehicle before the car started moving and fired a single fatal shot into her chest through her windshield after the vehicle moved.
"To me, the jurors didn't see what we've seen on that video -- that he was standing on the side of the car when he shot that bullet in her heart and killed her and the baby," Nadine Young said on Wednesday, referring to how she says she and the family interpret what happened in the body camera footage of the incident that was shown the jury.
Ta'Kiya Young's vehicle came to a stop against a building shortly after, as seen on the body camera video. Police said they attempted to give her life saving aid. Young and her unborn daughter were later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Nadine Young said on Wednesday that her family is doing all she could support Ta'Kiya Young's two living children.
"She treated her boys like gold, and she always was doing everything she could to provide for her kids and take care of them boys," Nadine Young said on Wednesday. "She was just a young mother trying to make it by. And she was just a light, a bright light in our life."
ABC News' Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.
