Officer due in court on murder charges in shooting of pregnant Black woman accused of shoplifting

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio police officer will be in court Wednesday to face charges in the shooting of Ta’Kiya Young, a pregnant Black mother who was killed after being accused of shoplifting.

Blendon Township police officer Connor Grubb is charged with murder, involuntary manslaughter and felonious assault in the death of Young and the daughter she was expecting three months later.

Young was suspected of stealing alcohol on Aug. 24, 2023, when Grubb and a fellow officer approached her car. She lowered her window part-way and the other officer ordered her out. Instead, she rolled her car forward toward Grubb, who fired a single bullet through her windshield into her chest.

A Franklin County grand jury indicted Grubb on Tuesday.

Bodycam footage of the encounter showed an officer at the driver’s side window telling Young she was accused of shoplifting and ordering her out of the car. Young protested and both officers cursed at her and yelled at her to get out. Young could be heard asking them, “Are you going to shoot me?”

Then she turned the steering wheel to the right, the car rolled slowly forward and Grubb fired his gun. Moments later, after the car came to a stop against the building, they broke the driver’s side window. Police said they tried to save her life, but she was mortally wounded.

Sean Walton, the family’s attorney, said Grubb had escalated the encounter by unnecessarily drawing his gun when he first confronted Young .

Brian Steel, president of the union representing Blendon Township police, said Grubb had to make a split-second decision, “a reality all too familiar for those who protect our communities.”

Some departments around the U.S. prohibit officers from firing at or from moving vehicles, and law enforcement groups such as the Police Executive Research Forum say shooting in such circumstances creates an unacceptable risk to bystanders from stray gunfire or the driver losing control of the vehicle.

The Blendon Township police department’s use of force policy says officers should try to move away from an approaching vehicle instead of firing their weapons. An officer should only shoot when he or she “reasonably believes there are no other reasonable means available to avert the imminent threat of the vehicle, or if deadly force other than the vehicle is directed at the officer or others.”

A full-time officer with the township since 2019, Grubb has been on paid administrative leave since the shooting.

FILE - This still image from bodycam video released by the Blendon Township Police on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, shows a bullet hole in the windshield of a car with Ta'Kiya Young inside after she was shot by a police officer outside a grocery store in Blendon Township, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus, on Aug. 24. The video was pixelated by the source. (Blendon Township Police via AP, File)

FILE - This still image from bodycam video released by the Blendon Township Police on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, shows an officer pointing his gun at Ta'Kiya Young moments before shooting her through the windshield outside a grocery store in Blendon Township, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus, on Aug. 24. The video was pixelated by the source. (Blendon Township Police via AP, File)

Attorney Sean Walton and Ta’Kiya Young's grandmother Nadine Young react after an Ohio police officer was indicted on charges including murder in the shooting of Ta’Kiya Young on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024 in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Patrick Aftoora Orsagos)

In this undated photo released by the Young Family via their family attorney, Ta'Kiya Young is pictured with her sons, Ja'Kobie, right, and Ja'Kenlie, left. (Courtesy of Young Family/Walton + Brown LLP via AP)

This still image from bodycam video released by the Blendon Township Police on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, shows an officer pointing his gun at Ta'Kiya Young moments before shooting her through the windshield outside a grocery store in Blendon Township, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus, on Aug. 24. The video was pixelated by the source. (Blendon Township Police via AP, File)

This Aug. 8, 2018, photo released by the Blendon Township, Ohio, Police Department shows officer Connor Grubb, who was indicted Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, on murder and other charges in the shooting of Ta’Kiya Young, a 21-year-old pregnant Black mother who was killed after being accused of shoplifting. (Blendon Township Police Department via AP)

This undated image provided by the law firm of Walton+ Brown, LLP, shows Ta'Kiya Young. (Walton+ Brown, LLP via AP)

BOSTON (AP) — A scuffle between members of the groundbreaking alternative rock band Jane’s Addiction came amid “tension and animosity” during their reunion tour, lead singer Perry Farrell’s wife said Saturday.

The band is known for edgy, punk-inspired hits “Been Caught Stealing” and “Mountain Song” in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the alternative rock and grunge music movements were growing.

In videos post on social media from Friday night's concert in Boston, Farrell, 65, is seen singing loudly into his mic and then lunging at guitarist Dave Navarro, bumping Navarro with his shoulder before taking a swing at Navarro with his right arm. Navarro is seen holding his right arm out to keep Farrell away before Farrell is dragged away by others on stage. The show ended shortly after.

“Perry’s frustration had been mounting, night after night, he felt that the stage volume had been extremely loud and his voice was being drowned out by the band,” Etty Lau Farrell wrote in an Instagram post Saturday morning.

She said her husband had been suffering from tinnitus and a sore throat and “by the end of the song, he wasn’t singing, he was screaming just to be heard.” She said her husband later broke down “and cried and cried.”

The band’s “Imminent Redemption” tour started in early August and has 15 dates left, including a show in Connecticut on Sunday night.

The band has not yet made a statement about the future of the tour.

FILE - Dave Navarro, left, and Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction peform during KAABOO 2017 at the Del Mar Racetrack and Fairgrounds on Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017, in San Diego, Calif. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File)