Police released video on Sunday showing eight of their Akron, Ohio, officers involved in a shooting that killed an unarmed black man who fled a traffic stop on June 27. Police played several videos at a news conference, one of which they said showed a shot from the car driven by Jayland Walker, 25, who was being chased by officers. Walker jumped out of the car and ran from police, the video showed. Police say he appeared to be walking toward officers, who at the time believed he was armed. A gun was later recovered from his car. Walker was shot about 90 times, according to Walker family attorney Bobby DiCello. The initial autopsy showed he had 60 gunshot wounds to his body after he was pronounced dead in the parking lot where he fell. DiCello had warned that the video was “barbaric,” in comments published Saturday by the Akron Beacon Journal. He said Walker’s relatives were worried the protests could turn violent. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office of Criminal Investigation will lead the investigation into police use of force. The shooting was the latest in a series of killings of black people by law enforcement in the United States that critics say are racist and unjustified, including the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis that sparked global protests against police brutality and racial profiling. injustice. “We’re all preparing for the community response and the only message we have is that the family doesn’t need any more violence,” DiCello said. The officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave, the Akron Police Department said. Authorities said Walker fled an early morning traffic stop and that officers reported a gun was fired from Walker’s vehicle, which he ran from before being fatally shot in a nearby parking lot. The death sparked small protests in Akron that began Wednesday, with many likening the incident to several high-profile police killings of black people in the US in recent years. National outrage reached a fever pitch in 2020 following the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis, Minnesota. One officer has since been convicted of murder in that incident, and three others have been convicted of violating Floyd’s civil rights. Speaking to reporters Friday, Walker’s aunt, Lajuana Walker-Dawkins, told reporters, “Jayland was a sweet young man, never caused any trouble.” Saturday’s Akron protest over Jayland Walker’s police shooting death grows… — Amanda Garrett (@agarrettABJ) July 2, 2022 During a protest Saturday, Jazzimine Beasley, the sister of Walker’s fiance who died in a car crash last month, called for accountability. “That was my brother,” he told the Beacon Journal. “I am here to vindicate myself. I’m so angry.” Rodderick Pounds Sr., the pastor of Second Baptist Church in Akron, said he was also able to see body camera footage of the killing before it was made public and said it did not show Walker threatening officers before he was shot. . He called the video “shocking” and said the killing was like a “massacre”. “It’s barbaric,” Pounce said in an interview with local television station WEWS-TV.
