(AKRON, Ohio) — After more than a week of testimony and evidence, a Summit County grand jury today declined to indict eight law enforcement officers from the Akron Police Department in the death last year of Jayland Walker, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced today.
“The question for the grand jury was not whether this was a horrible tragedy, as it clearly was,” AG Yost said at a news conference after the decision was handed down. “The question the grand jury was charged with evaluating was whether the officers were justified in their actions. The grand jury – nine citizens who live in Summit County – determined that the officers were justified.”
Walker, 25, of Akron, was fatally shot at 12:38 a.m. on June 27, 2022, in the parking lot of 1659 S. Main St.
Immediately following the officer-involved critical incident, the Akron Police Department requested assistance from the Crime Scene Unit of the attorney general’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI). Later that day, around 11 a.m., the department requested that BCI lead the use-of-force investigation.
As part of BCI’s efforts to gather and document all pertinent facts in the case:
- Investigators conducted more than 100 recorded interviews, including those with:
- The eight Akron officers who discharged their weapons.
- The 47 Akron officers who were involved in the incident, at the scene or otherwise deemed to have potentially relevant information.
- Possible witnesses.
- Family members, friends and associates of Walker.
- Investigators obtained and served six search warrants and four subpoenas, including those for Walker’s 2005 Buick Century, cellphone, employment records, Google records, and other financial and phone records.
- The Crime Scene Unit processed the scene for potential evidence, created 3D scans and models of the incident area, and collected more than 140 items of evidence from the scene and Walker’s vehicle.
- Investigators obtained and reviewed a combined 51 body-worn-camera footage clips and one dash-camera video from 45 officers. Of those, the eight body-worn-camera clips from the involved officers and four body-worn-camera footage clips from other responding Akron officers captured some portion of the incident.
- Investigators also obtained a dash-camera video from a Cuyahoga Falls officer that captured Walker discharging a firearm from his vehicle.
- Investigators obtained and reviewed surveillance-camera footage, including 25 videos from the Ohio Department of Transportation’s traffic cameras; six videos from the Bridgestone Center for Research and Technology, at 1659 S. Main St.; and video from Range USA in Akron, where Walker visited a shooting range with a friend on June 7 and, two weeks later, purchased a Glock pistol.
- Investigators attended a post-mortem examination of Jayland Walker’s body conducted by the Summit County medical examiner. They obtained relevant autopsy-related information, evidence and toxicology reports.
- Forensic scientists conducted forensic examinations, identifications and firearm operability tests on 155 items of evidence. The bureau’s laboratory also conducted DNA analysis on Walker’s recovered firearm and associated shell casing.
- Investigators reviewed Akron Police Department reports, New Franklin Police Department reports related to a previous pursuit of the Buick Century, APD’s use-of-force policies and the involved officers’ departmental records.
- Specialists from the attorney general’s Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission created enhancements of audio and video records for body-worn-camera footage, dash-camera footage and traffic-camera clips. OOCIC also created a top-down animation map of the involved officers’ positions during the incident.
Once completed, BCI’s investigation was referred to a special prosecutor from the Attorney General’s Office appointed by the Summit County prosecutor to present the case to a grand jury.
Today, the grand jury issued a “no bill” indictment in the case, meaning the jurors determined there was not sufficient cause to indict the officers.
“This case took more than a week because of the volume of evidence presented,” Yost said. “It’s important to note that the job of my office in this case was to investigate and present evidence to the grand jury. The grand jury was instructed about the law by the judge who oversees it, not by the prosecutors, to avoid any question about the accuracy of the instruction.”
BCI’s files in this case have been posted to the attorney general’s website. The site archives files for officer-involved critical incidents only after a case is closed to ensure a fair investigation and judicial process.
“I began publishing all of the evidence our investigators find in officer-involved critical incidents as a way of helping the community understand what actually happened, and to know that the investigation was thorough, expert and independent,” Yost said.
Under AG Yost, BCI has been asked to investigate more than 220 officer-involved critical incidents statewide.
An archived video of this afternoon’s press conference is available on the attorney general’s Facebook page.
