Body camera footage of Ta’Kiya Young’s tragic police shooting as a pregnant 21-year-old woman in a Columbus, Ohio, suburb has sparked debate over how a shoplifting accusation resulted in a bullet being fired through her windshield.
On Saturday, it was unknown if the Blendon Township Police Department had developed a use-of-force continuum policy, which would specify what measures must be utilized up to and including lethal force.
Young is seen in her car in a parking place as a police officer commands her to get out of the car in the video of the Aug. 24 shooting, which was made public on Friday. Despite department regulation instructing cops to move out of the way of an approaching automobile rather than discharge their weapon, a second officer is seen pulling his gun and advancing toward the car.
The question “Are you going to shoot me?” Young enquires just before turning the wheel to the right and directing the vehicle toward the second officer. Young’s vehicle swerves against the brick wall of the grocery store after the police fires through the windshield.
Young’s family’s lawyers have demanded that the cop who shot her be fired and criminally punished, claiming that the footage is horrifying. Police in Blendon have declined to identify either of the participating cops.
Here are some examples of how law enforcement handles moving vehicles:
WHY NOT FIRE ARMS AT MOVING CARS?
After protests over a shooting in 1972 that killed a 10-year-old passenger in a stolen car, the New York City Police Department was among the first to prohibit officers from firing at or from moving vehicles.
The policy, along with a few other use-of-force restrictions, was discovered by researchers in the late 1970s and early 1980s to have reduced the number of suspects who died in police shootings and bystander shootings.
Over the years, other law enforcement agencies have followed the NYPD’s example, and professional associations like the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Police Executive Research Forum have advocated for the restrictions, stating that shooting in such situations poses an unacceptably high risk to bystanders from stray gunfire or the driver losing control of the vehicle if shot.
According to the Blendon Township police department’s policy, “an officer should only discharge a firearm at a moving vehicle or its occupants when the officer reasonably believes there are no other reasonable means available to avert the imminent threat of the vehicle, or if deadly force other than the vehicle is directed at the officer or others.”
However, according to Campaign Zero, a collection of academics, activists, and others working to end police brutality, as of June only 32 police departments in the 100 largest U.S. cities had any sort of ban on firing at moving automobiles.
HOW ARE THESE POLICIES APPLIED AND APPLIED?
Individual department policies may include exceptions if a suspect is firing a weapon or if the car is being used as a weapon against an officer, according to John P. Gross of the University of Wisconsin Law School, who has written about the difficulties of ending police shooting at moving vehicles. However, many restrictions specifically state that other weapons must be present.
Prosecutors and internal police investigators frequently concentrate on the exact moment when force was used, but a wider perspective is required, he said. For instance, the fact that an officer already knows the license plate number of a vehicle may be a valid justification for not stopping it with force as “most of us are findable.”
In contrast to someone who could have shoplifted products worth $50, Gross said, “if you are pursuing someone accused of a homicide and who has shot at officers in the past, that’s a different situation.” “That context ought to be included in this.”
Because of the power of the police unions, departments frequently fail to enforce the rules with meaningful punishment, according to Gross. Union officials in Blendon Township said that as soon as Young’s car started driving, it turned into a weapon.
SHOULD POLICE MOVE INTENTIONALLY IN FRONT OF VEHICLES?
Numerous departmental policies instruct police to move aside. However, in the Ohio video, a cop can be seen pulling his gun and positioning himself in the way of Young’s parked car, which Gross referred to as “bad tactics.”
And frequently, poor tactics result in the need to employ more force than necessary, according to Gross. “The cop shouldn’t block the car with himself. With just his body, he cannot stop the automobile.
The officer violated his training, according to Edward Obayashi, a national use-of-force expert and attorney who focuses on police shootings involving motor vehicles.
Avoiding putting yourself in risk is the “best practice in these matters nationwide,” Obayashi said. There was no pressing reason for him to stand in that position.
Gross further questioned why the police pulled his gun when there was only a suspicion of stealing. He advocated alterations to police training.
“They are taught that if someone is resisting even verbally, that person is going to fight or flee,” said Gross. “That only links resistance to a danger. Officers learn in training that there are hazards and dangers all around them.
