COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ta’Kiya Young had big dreams for her growing family, and for herself.
Seven months pregnant, the 21-year-old Ohio woman loved to spoil her two sons and was thrilled to be expecting a daughter. She bought onesies, scheduled a photo shoot and showed off her belly. And she applied for public housing so they could have their own place while she pursued her goal of becoming a social worker.
Instead, Young and her unborn daughter were buried together — the mother in bright fuchsia and the daughter in white. Neither survived the shooting of a police officer in the parking lot of a grocery store where Young had been suspected of shoplifting in August 2023.
A jury on Friday acquitted the officer, Connor Grubb, of criminal wrongdoing. Her grandmother sobbed in the courtroom, yelling “This is not right!”
Young treated her young boys — now 8 and 5 — like kings, dressing them up, cooking them steaks and indulging them with too many sweets. A relative called Young a smart young woman who was “beautiful inside and out.”
Mourners celebrated her joyful spirit at her funeral by wearing various shades of her favorite color, bright pink. Her mother had died just a year earlier.
The family's lawyers vowed Friday to keep pursuing their civil claim against Blendon Township and its police chief, seeking accountability for her death despite the verdict.
“Ta’Kiya’s two sons deserve to know that their mother’s life mattered. They deserve financial security. They deserve to grow up in a world where pregnant Black women are not killed by police over shoplifting accusations,” the lawyers said. “And they deserve a legal system that delivers accountability even when a criminal jury cannot.”
Ta'Kiya Young's grandmother, Nadine Young, reacts as the verdict is read in the trial of Blendon Township police officer Connor Grubb, who was found not guilty in the on-duty death of her daughter at Franklin County Common Pleas Court in Columbus, Ohio on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025. (Doral Chenoweth/The Columbus Dispatch via AP, Pool)
FILE - Nadine Young, grandmother of Ta'Kiya Young, shows her shirt to reporters after arraignment proceedings of Blendon Township police officer Connor Grubb, Aug. 14, 2024, at the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas in Columbus. (AP Photo/David Dermer, file)
SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Thursday he will veto a bill that could significantly reduce the 27-year prison sentence of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was arrested in November for attempting a coup.
The Senate passed the bill late Wednesday, following approval by the Chamber of Deputies.
“With all due respect to the National Congress, when it reaches my desk, I will veto it," Lula told journalists in Brasilia, noting that those who committed crimes against Brazilian democracy “will have to pay for their acts.”
The text is also expected to be challenged at the Supreme Court.
The bill reduces the final sentences of defendants convicted under multiple charges stemming from the coup attempt, including Bolsonaro.
The former president’s lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court after his conviction, saying his prison term was excessive. They also argued that the sentences for abolishing the rule of law and attempting a coup should not be added because they arose from a single episode.
The proposed law would speed up sentence progression from harsher to more lenient prison regimes for those convicted.
There is no consensus on how much time Bolsonaro would actually serve if the bill takes effect. Under current rules, the former president could move to a less restrictive prison system after 7 years if he met legal requirements while incarcerated.
Paulinho da Força, the bill’s rapporteur in the Chamber of Deputies, has estimated that period could be cut to just over two years if the law passes.
The bill would also allow sentence reductions of up to two-thirds for crimes committed in a crowd, benefiting defendants convicted of storming public buildings during the Jan. 8, 2023, insurrection in Brasilia.
Under the bill, those who did not finance or lead the actions could receive reductions ranging from one-third to two-thirds.
Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of the former president and a prospective presidential candidate in next year’s election, praised fellow lawmakers for approving the bill, calling it a “first step.”
“There shouldn’t even be a debate about amnesty, but about annulling the farce that the entire process was,” he said.
Sen. Bolsonaro is expected to challenge Lula, who is seeking a fourth nonconsecutive term, as the candidate of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party in the 2026 presidential race.
On Sunday, tens of thousands of Brazilians protested against the bill. Demonstrations took place in the capital Brasilia and in other major cities across the country, including Sao Paulo, Florianopolis, Salvador and Recife.
Follow the AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro points to his electronic ankle monitor that the Supreme Court ordered him to wear, at Congress in Brasilia, Brazil, July 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Minervino Junior, CB/D.A Press, File)
