Jayland Walker: Grand jury won’t charge police in shooting death; man’s family will sue

AKRON, Ohio — A grand jury in Ohio on Monday decided that no criminal charges will be filed against eight police officers involved in the shooting death of a 25-year-old man last year.

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The nine-member panel in Summit County, seated by a special prosecutor, declined to indict the Akron Police Department officers in the June 27, 2022, shooting death of Jayland Walker, WJW-TV reported.

Update 10:31 p.m. EDT April 17: The attorney representing the family of Jayland Walker said a civil suit will be filed.

“We’re going to file it within the one-year anniversary of his death,” attorney Bobby DiCello told the Akron Beacon Journal. “I would expect it to be around June 1,” he said.

Judi Hill, president of the Akron NAACP, urged young people to continue working for change, according to the newspaper.

“My heart isn’t feeling peaceful; my head isn’t feeling peaceful. My head is saying change. Change has to happen and this is the start folks,” Hill said. “So young people ... do your TikToks, get on Facebook ... do what you need to do to keep up the heat. We don’t want them to think they can get away with this again.”

Earlier, during a virtual news conference by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, the names of four of the eight Akron officers who shot and killed Walker accidentally appeared on the screen, the Beacon Journal reported.

The video recording of the news conference was no longer available on the Ohio Attorney General’s Facebook page Monday night, according to the newspaper.

Original report: Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said the grand jury determined the officers were “legally justified in their use of force” and issued a “no bill,” according to the Akron Beacon Journal. “No bill” means there will be no state criminal action against the officers and no criminal charges will be filed, according to the newspaper.

Yost said it was still possible for civil action for a wrongful death case to move forward.

Walker died after a traffic stop and chase in Akron. When Walker did not pull over, officers chased him, first via vehicles and then on foot, WEWS-TV reported. Officers said that they believed Walker had fired a weapon at them, prompting them to shoot him, The New York Times reported.

“It went from being a routine traffic stop to now a public safety issue,” Akron police Chief Steve Mylett said in July 2022.

“Here is a shorthand version of what transpired in June last year,” Yost said during a news conference on Monday, according to the Beacon Journal. “Mr. Walker took at least one shot from his vehicle at the police, led them on a chase and exited from his vehicle and a ski mask, ignoring multiple commands by officers to show his hands and to stop.

“Now, the Summit County grand jury, people who live there in the community, spent more than a week reviewing the BCI investigation. The grand jury concluded that the officers were legally justified in their use of force.”

Officials confirmed that 94 shots were fired at Walker during the incident, WOIO-TV reported. Each of the eight officers fired between three and 18 shots, according to the television station.

In an autopsy conducted on Walker, the coroner noted 46 gunshot wounds to his body, WOIO reported. There were no drugs or alcohol in his system, officials said.

There were protests in Akron for several days after video footage of the shooting was released, the Times reported.

Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan called the video footage “heartbreaking” when it was released a week after the shooting.

Walker’s family called his death a brutal and senseless shooting of an unarmed man, The Associated Press reported.