A jury found Blendon Twp. Police Officer Connor Grubb not guilty of murder, felonious assault and involuntary manslaughter for fatally shooting Ta’Kiya Young in August 2023 at a Sunbury Road Kroger store.
The jury returned the verdict on Friday morning. The jury weighed six total charges for murder, felonious assault and involuntary manslaughter after hearing six days of testimony. The jury wasn’t asked to determine whether or not Grubb killed Young, but whether his actions as a police officer were justified and reasonable.
Defense attorneys for Grubb argued he was justified because Young tried to drive her car away after she was accused of shoplifting. The defense argued Young’s car struck Grubb before he fired one shot, killing Young and her unborn child.
Young was about seven months pregnant when Grubb shot her.
Grubb, who was hired by the Blendon Township Police Department in 2019, was originally charged with murder and felonious assault for killing Young’s unborn child. Judge David Young, who is not related to Young, dismissed those charges after no evidence was presented at the trial that Grubb knew Young was pregnant.
What happened the day Connor Grubb shot Ta’Kiya Young?
Police body camera video and surveillance video from the Kroger showed Grubb was in the parking lot of the Sunbury Road Kroger store when a second officer was told by a Kroger employee that Young had just shoplifted liquor. Surveillance video showed Young leaving the store with the liquor bottles.
Warning: the below footage contains graphic footage and language that some may find upsetting.
The second officer, Sgt. Erik Moynihan, confronted Young on the driver's side of her Lexus Sedan and ordered her to get out of the vehicle. Moynihan knocked on Young's window and said "hey, stop" and "get out of the car." Young rolled down her window and asked "for what," to which the officer said, "They said you stole stuff. Do not leave."
Young replied "I didn't steal s**t. The other girls were taking..." The officer began hitting Young's partially open window and Young said, "Are you going to shoot me?"
Grubb stepped in front of Young's vehicle and pulled out his gun, telling Young to "get out of the ****ing car."
Within seconds, Young turned on her turn signal and began turning her steering wheel away from Grubb, and slowly accelerated forward. She appeared to strike Grubb with her vehicle.
Grubb shot Young through her windshield once.
The car continued accelerating forward until it came to a stop underneath the awning of the Kroger plaza. Moynihan and Grubb continued to chase the vehicle, attempting to break out the window.
When the vehicle stopped, Grubb broke the window and attempted to give Young first aid until first responders arrived on scene.
Grubb’s defense team argued Grubb was injured that day because of the impact of the slow moving car to his knees and shin. Prosecutors disputed that claim, arguing Grubb was injured from glass scattered on the ground from Young’s car window.
Who testified at the trial?
The special prosecutors called 14 witnesses during the evidence phase of the trial, while defense attorneys Mark Collins and Kaitlyn Stephens called three witnesses in Grubb's defense.
These included eyewitnesses at the scene, first responders, state investigators and experts in police use of force, incident reconstruction and human movement. Notably Moynihan, the second officer on scene, was one of the witnesses called by the defense.
Grubb didn’t testify himself, but was present in the courtroom for the entire trial. He sat quietly and stared directly ahead.
Young’s family members were also present at the trial. The family is suing civilly in both Franklin County and in federal court.
One of the key witnesses was Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Kyle Douglass, whose testimony was significant because he read a two-year-old statement Grubb wrote following the shooting into the record.
Grubb has not spoken publicly since the shooting, making this statement the first time Grubb was heard from publicly. He defended his actions that day.
"At the time I fired my weapon, I was in fear for my life as the suspect had just struck me with her vehicle. My feet were no longer on the ground and the top half of my body was on the hood of the car," Grubb wrote.
Grubb explained that he initially drew his weapon to provide "lethal cover" for the other officer, because Young was not complying with his orders to get out of her car.
Grubb said his target while shooting was Young's "center mass" and he only shot her once because he fell from the hood of her car.
"I do not believe I had any other reasonable alternative to protect my life from the suspect's actions. Once I realized the car was accelerating I tried to get out of the way, but the suspect's vehicle struck my legs/shin and lifted my feet off the ground and the suspect was trying to flee with me being carried on the hood of her car," Grubb wrote.
The jury also heard from use of force experts Kevin Davis and Seth Stoughton.
Davis testified he didn't think Grubb violated law or police department policy by stepping in front of Young’s vehicle. He said Grubb was justified in shooting Young. Davis spent decades in law enforcement and now trains police officers throughout the state.
Davis argued Young committed felonious assault, which then elevated the theft she allegedly committed to aggravated burglary. Young was also not complying with orders from Moynihan and Grubb to get out of her car.
"We have felony crimes including crimes of violence and severity. We have an immediate threat by driving into the police officer and we have a subject that was actively resisting arrest or detention," Davis said.
The Blendon Township Police Department's internal policy states, "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."
Stoughton, a University of South Carolina policing and public safety professor, testified after Davis and rebutted his arguments.
Stoughton testified in the cases for former Franklin County Sheriff SWAT Deputy Jason Meade and former Columbus Police Officer Adam Coy. Coy was found guilty of murder for killing Andre Hill in 2020 and given a prison sentence of 15 years to life. Meade stood trial for fatally shooting Casey Goodson Jr. in 2020. A judge declared a mistrial in that case in Feb. 2024 and Meade is awaiting a new trial.
Stoughton also testified in former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin's trial in 2020. Chauvin was convicted in the death of George Floyd.
Stoughton was extremely critical of Grubb's actions. He said Grubb stepping in front of Young's car was against police policy.
"That was tactically unsound. It was unreasonable. It is unjustified risk taking under the circumstances, and it is a position that is foreseeably likely to contribute to an officer-involved shooting," Stoughton said.
Stoughton criticized Grubb for drawing his firearm after he stepped in front of Young's vehicle.
"That decision to draw his firearm and then use deadly force as opposed to moving out from in front of the vehicle where he had put himself is also just professionally inappropriate and not consistent with generally-accepted practices," Stoughton said.
Who were the defense lawyers and special prosecutors in the case?
Special prosecutors Erin Claypoole, Richard Glennon and Daniel Brandt were appointed by Franklin County to oversee the case at trial. The three are employed by the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office in Dayton.
Stephens and Collins represented Grubb.
Collins and Stephens have represented many of the police officers charged with murder in Franklin County in the last few years, including Grubb, Coy, Meade, former Columbus Police Vice Officer Andrew Mitchell and former Columbus Police Officer Ricky Anderson.
Mitchell was acquitted of murder charges, but he later pleaded guilty to federal charges for killing Donna Dalton Castleberry in 2018. In Dec. 2023, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison and 8 years of parole.
Anderson is charged with murder and reckless homicide for shooting 20-year-old Donovan Lewis in Aug. 2022. Anderson has not yet stood trial in that case.
Franklin County has alternated between hiring special prosecutors to handle these trials or using its own attorneys to prosecute the police officers.
This story will be updated.
