Body camera video of the fatal police shooting of Ta’Kiya Young, a 21-year-old pregnant mother in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, has raised questions about how an allegation of shoplifting led to a bullet being fired through her windshield.
It was unclear Saturday whether the Blendon Township Police Department has adopted a use-of-force continuum policy, which would outline measures that must be exhausted before lethal force can be used.
The video of the Aug. 24 shooting, released Friday, shows Young in her car in a parking space as a police officer orders her to exit the vehicle. A second officer is seen drawing his firearm and stepping in front of the car, despite a department policy advising officers to get out of the way of an approaching vehicle instead of firing their weapon.
There’s people on one side saying the shooting is unjustified, there’s people on a other saying it was justified.
And then there’s all of us that are like “why would you shoot someone over this, and why is the whole thing handled so dangerously?”.
Why not note the registration plate and then get her later? By turning the scenario into a thing they also endangered everyone else around the car.
Whole thing is poor. These police need some basic scenario management training, and to learn how to not escalate situations.
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Her vehicle didn’t have a license plate (https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2023/08/25/blendon-township-police-statement-fatal-kroger-parking-lot-shooting-takiya-kiya-young-columbus-ohio/70680484007/) and in many places criminals steal cars or plates already to conceal their identity when committing property crimes. I don’t know what the answer is but it’s likely not that.
The answer is “it’s better to let them get away with petty theft than to kill them.”
Not to mention endangering bystanders in the process.
(Though, to be clear: it’s monstrous to shoot people for petty theft even if there are no bystanders)