AKRON, Ohio — The Akron Citizens' Police Oversight Board has announced that they will begin a "rigorous" review of the police department's internal investigation into the fatal shooting of Jayland Walker.
In a three-page executive summary released on Tuesday, Akron Police Chief Steve Mylett stated that the eight officers' use of deadly force "was objectively reasonable" and the officers complied with the department's use of force policy in the shooting of Walker.
The board will report the results of the review and will make any recommendations that are warranted.
The board is expected to review Chief Mylett's conclusions as well as these additional issues:
- If the actions of the officers who pursued Jayland Walker and of those officers who fired at him did not violate APD policies, should those policies be revised?
- In particular, should the Use of Force policy be revised as to what levels of force should be used under what circumstances and as to the standard for assessing whether the policy has been violated?
- Was appropriate command and control exercised by APD in the Jayland Walker incident? If not, should the policies and procedures for incident command and control be revised?
The full statement can be read below:
Though Walker — a Black man — was later found to have fired a weapon out of his car during the chase, he was not armed at the time of his death, and an autopsy eventually confirmed he had been hit by more than 40 police bullets. The incident and subsequent release of the body camera footage caused an uproar in the community, leading to mass protests and a successful ballot initiative calling for a civilian oversight board of the police department.
Mylett's conclusion was similar to the "no bill" decision that was issued by a Summit County grand jury earlier this year. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost stated at the time that jurors felt the officers' use of deadly force against Walker was justified by state law. "There is no doubt that Jayland Walker did indeed shoot at police officers," Yost added.
The internal investigation, led by Akron police Lt. Scott Lietke, did uncover several potential violations of department policy. For instance, one officer had added an extension to his department-issued magazine (increased capacity up to 6 additional rounds) on the night of the shooting and inadvertently had two rounds of “training” ammunition in his magazine.
In addition, two patrol cruisers entered the vehicle pursuit of Walker without specific authorization from their on-duty supervisor. Additionally, two officers in one of those cruisers failed to immediately activate their body cameras in accordance with the APD pursuit policy.
In all instances, Mylett said the officers involved did not intentionally violate department policy.
3News' Dave DeNatale and Neil Fischer contributed to this report.
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