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Attorneys for Blendon Twp. cop charged with murder want trial moved out of Franklin County

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dcsports

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This is the case where a police officer (Connor Grubb) shot and killed a pregnant suspect as she tried to drive away, when a Kroger employee indicated she had shoplifted from the store. The defense team is arguing for a change of venue.

This is an expected motion - defense attorneys will always argue this on a high profile case. I find the reasoning kind of interesting - that they've apparently had so many police shootings that jurors are getting them confused, and are 'tired' of police shootings. Given this case - with a woman shot over petty theft involving a few bottles of wine - sounds like the whole county may need to implement some use of force training.



Judge weighing request by officer accused of killing Ta'Kiya Young for change of venue

A Franklin County judge will decide if Blendon Township police officer Connor Grubb should be tried in the county or grant a defense request for a change of venue.
www.wosu.org
 
Not guilty.

“Young was suspected of stealing alcohol at a Kroger 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 drove forward toward Grubb, who fired a single bullet through her windshield into her chest.

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.”

Blendon Township officer charged in Ta’Kiya Young’s death moved to unpaid leave

Blendon Twp. officer charged in the fatal shooting of Ta’Kiya Young, moves to unpaid leave amid budget cuts.
www.10tv.com

When police tell you to get out of the car; it doesn’t mean use your vehicle as a weapon.
 
Watch the body cam footage. The officer in front of the car could easily have just stepped out of the way, but chose to try and block the car with his body. He was already out of danger when he fired his gun. That led to him executing the woman (and child) for the crime of disobeying a police officer when accused of minor shop lifting. The penalty the woman would have faced in court for that crime would have been very little, but the police decided to execute her for failing to do as she was told. What is the legislated penalty for that? Not execution is it!!

It is sickening how often police use their guns to kill people purely because those people annoyed them by not following orders. Then we get all the excuses about police safety etc etc. This was one of those classic execution scenarios and the officer that killed her should (imo) be done for murder. He had a very easy choice to let her drive away, but decided that her 'disobedience' of his instructions warranted her execution. I just can't understand that mentality, and I can't understand how anyone can watch the body cam footage and try to defend what happened.
 
I've been wrong about these kinds of cases before because it will ultimately come down to how these jurors interpret the actions of the deceased and the actions of the officer(s) and what is reasonable given the circumstances.

I think the officer's odds of being acquitted are probably north of 50%. They were responding to a shoplifting call. They presumably made it clear that they were law enforcement. They lawfully instructed the driver to get out of the car on multiple occasions. She refused. She then drove toward an armed officer who lawfully instructed her to get out of the car. The officer isn't required to ask her whether she intends to floor it and run him over or is merely tapping the gas pedal.

Now, do I think she had to be fatally shot over a suspected shoplifting incident? No, I don't. I think police departments all over the country have trained their officers to be unnecessarily confrontational, but I blame multi-billion dollar corporations like Kroger who encourage law enforcement activity and criminal prosecution over petty theft. If it's the average person who, say, got their bike stolen by their neighbor, the police would just tell them to fill out a report and send it in and that they'll investigate (right).
 
And officer can't jump to deadly force for petty theft. He violated his department's policy and the law
 
dcsports said:
And officer can't jump to deadly force for petty theft. He violated his department's policy and the law
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He can when the perp accelerates a car towards him. Which is what the bodycam footage proves happened.
 
Stealers Wheel said:
It's real simple. When the police tell you to do something, you either do it or they get to kill you. Surely a jury will understand that.

Cop an attitude? They get to kill you. Show disrespect? They get to kill you.
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That is so wrong.
 
They were responding to keys locked in a car. Someone from the store started yelling that she was a shoplifter. They had no other evidence when they started shouting, hammering on her window, and drew a gun.
 
dcsports said:
He stepped in front of the car and drew his gun. She got scared, tried to steer around him, and eased forward.
Click to expand...
She was ordered out of the car and instead used her car as a weapon by accelerating it towards him.
 
Napoleon said:
She was ordered out of the car and instead used her car as a weapon by accelerating it towards him.
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Already corrected this. Accelerated in that she was going just above zero. She likely panicked when the officers went into freak out mode.
 
dcsports said:
They were responding to keys locked in a car. Someone from the store started yelling that she was a shoplifter. They had no other evidence when they started shouting, hammering on her window, and drew a gun.
Click to expand...

If someone tells an officer she shoplifted, that's not enough evidence to arrest her, but they can ask her to step out of the car, and she would be wise to comply.

I'm not saying I agree with what the officers did. In fact I probably don't, but based on what I've seen in the videos, she should have just turned off the ignition and gotten out of the car. She can sue if she thinks she was profiled or if she thinks her civil liberties were violated.
 
dcsports said:
He stepped in front of the car and drew his gun. She got scared, tried to steer around him, and eased forward.
Click to expand...

Hard to tell. It looks like she got shot and then the car rolled.

I think it's going to be hard to convict the officer of murder, but not impossible. A civil settlement, OTOH, would seem likely.
 
Actually, she can't. She's dead. They had to kill her. How else was she gonna learn?
 
Stealers Wheel said:
I'm betting the cop wishes he had made different decisions as well.
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No doubt.

Stealers Wheel said:
Now he has to endure the indignity of justifying his actions to to a bunch of non-cops. maybe even some black folks.
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He's facing criminal conviction and a lengthy prison sentence.

I am not saying that the officers handled this the right way, but unfortunately, it's possible for LEOs to be poorly trained or to overreact and still avoid criminal conviction.
 
Remember the Rodney King cops trial?

They got a change of venue to a predominately white upscale suburb of LA. The jury was all white with only one asian included. The LA DA did not want the cops convicted, so he made sure the only black man in the courtroom was the prosecutor. They were acquitted, and much of LA burned from the subsequent riots. The officers were later charged with federal civil rights violations and were convicted.
 
Napoleon said:
Only if you believe that perps are entitled to use a vehicle as a weapon to flee the scene of a crime.
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Nope.

Grubb, positioned in front of the vehicle (a failure of basic police safety training), had sufficient time to get out of the way but chose to use lethal force.
 
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