White Jury Selected for the White Cop who Murdered Ta’Kiya Young: Shot Pregnant Black Woman who Slowly Drove Toward Him, Posed No Imminent Danger of Death. Never Expect Justice in Racist System

Unrepresentative juries not only exclude and marginalize communities of color, they also produce wrongful convictions and unfair sentences that disproportionately burden Black people and people of color. Our failure to remedy this longstanding problem of racial bias imperils the legitimacy of the U.S. legal system.

ALL WHITE JURIES DESTROY THE APPEARANCE OF JUSTICE. Attorneys gave their opening statements on Wednesday in the murder trial for the white Blendon Township Police Officer Connor Grubb, who fatally shot Ta’Kiya Young outside of a Kroger in August 2023.

Grubb, 31, is charged with four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault and two counts of involuntary manslaughter in relation to the deaths of Young, 21, and the unborn baby she was carrying.

Opening statements took place after a 12-person jury with four alternates was seated on Wednesday morning.

JURY OVERWHELMINGLY WHITE. The jurors consist of four men and eight women and only one person of color. The four alternates are all women, including one person of color.

Once opening statements wrapped up, jurors departed from the courthouse to visit the scene of the shooting. Court is expected to resume on Monday morning.

If convicted of murder, Grubb could face a maximum sentence of life in prison. The trial is expected to last about two to three weeks. [MORE]

The estate of Ta’Kiya Young sued Blendon Township and its police chief over her August 2023 fatal shooting in the parking lot of a grocery store in the Columbus suburbs. She had been suspected of shoplifting bottles of alcohol when Officer Connor M. Grubb and another officer approached her car. Young, 21, partially lowered her window and the other officer ordered her to get out of the vehicle. 

When she moved her car to the right, it slowly rolled toward Grubb, who is accused of shooting her through the windshield. Young and the unborn daughter she was expecting as her third child were both pronounced dead at a hospital.

“Without reasonable verification or investigation, the officers recklessly escalated their response, singling out Ms. Young and treating her as a dangerous criminal despite the minor nature of the allegations," the lawsuit claims. Grubb has had other “aggressive encounters with community members” but faced no meaningful discipline, the complaint alleges.

The lawsuit makes a single claim of municipal liability and seeks damages along with an injunction to stop policies that deprived Young and her unborn child of their constitutional rights.

Young's estate also sued Grubb, supermarket chain Kroger Company and one of the store's employees last month. That earlier lawsuit, filed in Franklin County, makes claims of wrongful death and negligence. [MORE]