Police in Akron, Ohio, have released heartbreaking body-camera footage showing officers shooting an unarmed 25-year-old black man dozens of times as he fled.
“I won’t mince my words, the video you are about to watch is heartbreaking,” Akron mayor Dan Horrigan said at a news conference Sunday. “I urge all our residents to retain your full judgment until our investigation is complete.”
The bodycam videos shown on Sunday started with officers chasing Jayland Walker in their police cars around 12:30 p.m. Monday after he refused to stop for an alleged traffic violation. Police said about 40 seconds after he fled, officers heard “the sound of a gunshot” coming from the door of his car.
The chase continued for several minutes before Walker, wearing a ski mask, got out of his silver Buick through the passenger door and fled on foot. Police said officers tried unsuccessfully to apprehend him with tasers and the chase continued to a nearby parking lot.
There, Walker “turned quickly to the pursuing officers” and unleashed a barrage of gunfire at him, police said. The disturbing body-camera footage shows Walker collapsing quickly to the ground as countless shots reverberate.
Police Chief Stephen Mylett confirmed on Sunday that Walker was “unarmed” when he was killed. Police found a handgun, a loaded magazine and a gold ring on the driver’s seat of his car.
Walker still had a pulse when officers tried to load him into the police car, Mylett added. He couldn’t say how many bullets were fired, but Walker had at least 60 wounds to his body.
Horrigan acknowledged how horrific the images were and urged residents to protest peacefully.
“I fully support the right of our citizens to assemble peacefully,” the mayor said at the press conference. “But I hope the community agrees that violence and destruction are not the answer.”
Since the murder of Walker on June 27, the eight police officers involved in Akron have been placed on leave and the city has canceled the festivities on July 4. Protesters have surrounded city buildings, demanding justice and the release of the body camera images.
The Walker family’s lawyers said they were outraged by the way police presented the videos on Sunday, claiming that their descriptions of the footage portrayed him as a villain. Bobby DiCello, the lead attorney representing the family, said Mylett was an “armchair quarterback,” using “snapshots” as he took the footage apart.
“They want to turn him into a masked monster with a gun,” DiCello said.
His colleague Ken Abbarno echoed that sentiment, urging police to be more transparent about what happened during Walker’s chase.
“The officers will be held accountable for any action they have taken,” Abbarno said. “We live in a society where we will never see this happen again.”
DiCello said he died after being shot nearly 100 times, and they’ve demanded police take witness statements from the officers involved in the shooting. The officers are not identified by name.
“The Walker family prays for peace, they ask for peace, they pray for responsibility,” Abbarno said after the images were released Sunday afternoon. “We can’t villain Jayland.”
“We’re done dying this way,” said another attorney, Paige White. “No one should ever suffer the fate that Jayland Walker endured.”