Ta'Kiya Young - update

Last week I wrote an article on the Ta’Kiya Young Officer Involved Shooting (OIS) as part of my Officer Involved series.

Officer Involved: Ta'kiya Young

I wrote this article prior to the release of the body cam footage being made public. This was an interesting exercise and I noted that I would (and should) change my mind with new evidence.

This is an update to the original article after having the benefit of watching the body cam footage. Above is a short Tik Tok video with my thoughts as well. Follow me there or on Instagram for daily content.

Two Things

Honest and reasonable people should be able to acknowledge two things at the same time:

1. The officer never should have positioned himself in front of the car. That was a tactical error.

2. Ms. Young should not have shoplifted and subsequently attempted to run over a police officer.

A tactical error is not legally or morally equivalent to a violent felony. And, trying to run over another human with a vehicle IS a violent felony.

Body Cam

Body cam footage is an important piece of evidence. However, it is important to remember that it does not show what the officer saw, heard, or perceived. The camera could be pointing one way and the officer could be looking another. The idea that an officer saw everything that the body cam recorded is a gross misunderstanding of what this single piece of evidence is.

Also, it is possible that an officer perceived something that was not captured by the body camera footage. The human body does odd (but predictable) things under extreme stress. If you have never experienced the auditory exclusions, tunnel vision, or the slowing down of time - consider yourself lucky and trust me (and Force Science) that they are indeed real.

That being said - some thoughts

1. The officer never should have positioned himself in front of the car.

   1. This is against training, best practices, and policy of most departments.

2. The officer appeared to have time to move and avoid danger.

   1. I am not saying this with the arrogance of 20/20 hindsight but with the fact that he DID successfully move out of the way.

3. Police cannot use deadly force against a shoplifter just because they are fleeing.

4. Police can use deadly force in the face of an immediate threat of death or great bodily injury to themselves or others.

5. The officer fired the shot as he was moving and almost on the side of the car and out of the danger zone.

   1. There is a natural reactionary gap between decision and action that may account for this.

6. The tires of the car did “squeal” as she pulled forward - this could have reasonably convinced the officer in the moment that the vehicle was/was going to travel much faster than it actually did.

   1. Again. Natural reactionary-gap.

7. Small chance this was a Negligent Discharge?

Final Thoughts

Based on the information currently available - this OIS is likely not objectively reasonable. This is based on the totality of the circumstances that include the tactical error (ie. “officer induced jeopardy”) and the reality that he was able to move out of the way of the moving car. So, if he was able to successfully avoid danger and move - why did he shoot? That is the question that we need answered.

Also, the officer may have reasonably perceived something that we are not aware of. Any final determination by the police department, outside investigative agency, or prosecutor should include the statement by the officer.