OHIO authorities released bodycam video today showing police officers shooting dead a pregnant black woman in her car, an act that her family denounced as a “gross misuse of power and authority.”

Columbus resident Ta’Kiya Young, 21, was pronounced dead shortly after the shooting on August 24 outside a food shop in the suburb of Blendon Township. Her unborn daughter did not survive.

The footage, made public more than a week after her death, shows another officer at the driver’s side window, repeatedly demanding that Ms Young “get out of the car.”

The officer by her window tells Ms Young she has been accused of theft. She protests and he repeats his demand that she leave the vehicle.

She turns the steering wheel to her right and accelerates towards the officer standing in front of it. The officer in front of the vehicle fires through the windscreen at Ms Young and, seconds later, her car drifts until it hits the shop’s brick wall.

Officers then break her window, which Blendon Township Police Chief John Belford said was to get Ms Young out of the car and provide first aid, though footage of the medical assistance was not provided.

Ms Young’s family members were able to view the footage before its public release and gave a statement today through their lawyer, Sean Walton.

“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,” the statement said.

Mr Walton said the family was seeking a swift criminal indictment of the officers involved in Ms Young and her daughter’s deaths.

Mr Walton told reporters on Thursday that the family had grown frustrated with delays in the police releasing the body camera footage.

Mr Belford said the delay resulted from a small staff trying to process the video and properly redact certain footage, such as officers’ faces and badge numbers, in accordance with Ohio law.

The two officers’ names, ages and races were not immediately released. They are on paid administrative leave while the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation examines the shooting, which is standard practice in cases of police using deadly force.

Ms Young was expecting to give birth to a daughter in November. An online appeal to pay her funeral expenses has raised nearly $7,000 (£5,531).

Her siblings, cousins, grandmother and father have rallied around her sons, six-year-old Ja’Kobie and three-year-old Ja’Kenlie, who don’t yet understand the magnitude of what happened to their mother, Mr Walton said.

“It’s a large family and Ta’Kiya has been snatched away from them,” Mr Walton said. “I think the entire family is still in shock.”

Family and friends held a private vigil the day after the killing, releasing balloons and lighting candles spelling out “RIP Kiya.”

Her grandmother described Ms Young as a family-oriented prankster who was a loving older sister and mother.

“She was so excited to have this little girl,” Nadine Young told a news conference on Wednesday. “She has her two little boys, but she was so fired up to have this girl. She is going to be so missed.

“I’m a mess because it’s just tragic,” she said, “but it should have never ever happened.”