Justice For Ta’Kiya Young: Connor Grubb Is 2nd White Cop Charged With Murdering Black Woman In 2 Months

Ta’Kiya Young. | Source: Church of Christ

N ewly announced murder charges against a former police officer in Ohio marked the second time in as many months that a white cop is being prosecuted for killing a Black woman in instances that were both preventable.

Most recently, former Blendon Township police officer Connor Grubb was charged on Tuesday with the murder of Ta’Kiya Young , a 21-year-old Black mother of two who was six months pregnant. Grubb, 29, shot Young at point-blank range in the parking lot of a Kroger supermarket after he approached her and accused her of shoplifting on Aug. 24, 2023.

MORE: RIP Ta’Kiya Young: Funeral Held For Pregnant Mother Gunned Down By Trigger-Happy Cop In Ohio

The charges against Grubb came less than a month after former Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson, 30, was formally charged in the homicide of Sonya Massey , 36, who called the police on July 6 for emergency help at her home in Springfield, Illinois.

What happened to Ta’Kiya Young?

Bodycam video shows Grubb firing his gun directly into Young’s car windshield in a heavily populated parking lot after Young refused to get out of her vehicle. Grubb stood in front of her car and fired a single shot after Young’s car slowly crept forward.

The bodycam footage contradicted the initial police narrative in which Blendon Police Chief John Belford accused Young of putting her car in drive and accelerating toward Grubb.

The footage also suggests that Grubb decided to use lethal force when circumstances shown on video suggest none was needed at all.

The video footage is graphic in nature and should be viewed with discretion. You can view it by clicking here .

Source: WOSU Public Media/YouTube

There are also police policies about shooting into a moving vehicle to contend with. The Blendon Police Department use of force policy states in part that, “When feasible, officers should take reasonable steps to move out of the path of an approaching vehicle instead of discharging their firearm at the vehicle or any of its occupants.”

What happened to Sonya Massey?

The police reported that there were shots fired about a half-hour after arriving at Massey’s home in the early morning hours of July 6. Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputies reportedly rendered medical aid to Massey to no avail, and she was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. The county coroner said Massey’s official cause of death was a gunshot wound.

There were no reports of Massey being armed or exhibiting behavior that would justify killing someone who called the police for help.

The deputies involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave but were not identified.

It was unclear whether a suspected intruder was ever located.

But that is seemingly just about all the information that the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office and the Illinois State Police – the latter of which is investigating the shooting – are willing to make public in the shooting, leaving Massey’s family and neighbors demanding to know more.

Sonya Massey. | Source: Screenshot

What’s next?

The legal system will need time for both of these unrelated cases to play out in courts of law.

But the fact that separate grand juries in separate states not only returned indictments against white police officers who killed Black women but also resulted in swift charges, may bode well for the prospect of such future criminal prosecutions of trigger-happy cops.

After all, it wasn’t too long ago when grand juries, prosecutors and attorney generals readily declined to bring any criminal charges in the controversial police deaths of people like Breonna Taylor, Ma’Khia Bryant and Sandra Bland.

Bryant, notably, was 16 years old when she called 911 for help, only for officers with the Columbus Police Department in Ohio to respond with lethal force against her. But a grand jury ultimately decided that Officer Nicholas Reardon “acted appropriately” and “did what he was trained to do.”

This is America.

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