Police have released bodycam footage of the moment an officer shot dead a pregnant black woman in Ohio.
Ta’Kiya Young, 21, was pronounced dead shortly after the shooting on 24 August. Her unborn daughter also died.
The video shows two officers outside Ms Young’s car, which is parked outside a food shop in the suburb of Blendon Township in the US state.
A lawyer, representing Ms Young’s family, said the video clearly shows her death was “avoidable” and called for the officer who shot her to be fired immediately and charged.
Footage released by the Blendon Township after Ta’Kiya Young’s death. Pic: AP
In the footage, an officer can be seen at the driver’s side window.
He repeatedly demands that Ms Young “get out of the car” as she has been accused of theft.
Ms Young is seen refusing to get out of the car, turning the steering wheel of the vehicle and apparently driving towards the officer standing in front of the car.
Pic: AP
The officer, who can be seen in the reflection on the car bonnet holding his gun at Ms Young, fires the weapon through the windscreen.
Seconds later, her car drifts until it hits the shop’s wall.
The two officers run towards the moving car.
One of them can be heard saying “shots fired” on his radio before breaking the window of the car.
Pic: AP
“Having viewed the footage in its entirety, it is undeniable that Ta’Kiya’s death was not only avoidable, but also a gross misuse of power and authority,” lawyer Sean Walton said.
The names of the two officers involved were not immediately released.
Both are on paid administrative leave while the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation examines the shooting, which is standard practice in cases of police use of deadly force in the state.
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‘Ta’Kiya has been snatched away’
Ms Young had two young sons, six-year-old Ja’Kobie and three-year-old Ja’Kenlie, and was “so excited” to welcome her little girl, her grandmother Nadine Young said.
She described her granddaughter as a family-oriented prankster who was a loving older sister and mother.
Family and friends of Ta’Kiya Young release balloons at a private vigil. Pic: AP
Pic: AP
“She has her two little boys, but she was so fired up to have this girl. She is going to be so missed,” Nadine Young said at a press conference.
“I’m a mess because it’s just tragic,” she said, “but it should have never ever happened.”
Mr Walton, the family’s lawyer, added Ms Young had been “snatched away” from her two sons, who do not yet understand the magnitude of what happened to their mother.