AKRON, Ohio — On Thursday, the Ohio Attorney General's office released redacted video interviews that were conducted with the eight Akron police officers who fatally shot Jayland Walker.
The interviews were conducted by agents of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation between July 6-12, 2022, just days after Walker's death on June 27.
On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced that a grand jury decided that no state criminal charges will be filed against the eight officers. Jurors issued a "no bill" decision, with Yost stating they 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.
According to Yost, evidence collected by the BCI included more than 100 interviews, including with each of the eight officers who fired their weapons during the incident. It also includes evidence collected through multiple search warrants, subpoenas, body cam footage, dash-camera video, surveillance video, police reports and an autopsy of Walker's body.
In the video interviews, the faces of the officers are redacted and their names are muted. You can see all of the video interviews here.
One officer told tearfully investigators, "I was terrified. Because my thoughts were 'if this guy (Walker) is willing to shoot at us because we were stopping him for a taillight, what was he going to do to other people? To other cops?'"
You can watch his interview below (quote is available at 16:54)
There were some common themes in each of the officers' interviews. They spoke of why Walker's wearing of a ski mask was significant. "That means they don't want to be caught by police," an officer explained. "It means they're up to some kind of criminal activity."
All spoke about how Walker's move towards his waist area after he had stopped running from police caused officers to believe he was about to fire on them.
"I was immediately fearful for my life and for the safety and well being of my partners," one of the officers stated. "He turned around. He was facing us. I saw his right arm in his pocket and his arm was positioned in a way that I believed he was pulling a firearm," another added. "And with him already shooting at officers, I believed he was going to try to shoot at officers again.”
Some of the officers spoke about having "tunnel vision" during the point that they started to open fire on Walker. One officer in particular noted that "the scariest and the biggest thing is once he (Walker) raised his arm and I began shooting, I got that tunnel vision and I began shooting. Watching the video it freaks me out every time of how close I was to shooting (one of the other seven APD officers) because I didn’t even know he was standing in front of me."
The BCI's investigation showed Walker was shot at 94 times, being hit 46 times. Three of the eight police officers fired 18 shots during the incident. When questioned by BCI agents if it was excessive to fire that many shots, one APD officer responded, "I mean, we were trained to shoot until the threat is gone and that's, that's exactly what I did.”
“I discharged my firearm until the threat was neutralized," another officer added. "I believed he (Walker) was still a threat even though he was shot because through my past experiences, someone that is shot doesn’t mean the threat’s neutralized.”
There were personal stories shared by the officers in the aftermath of the shooting. One described it as "the worst experience I've ever felt in my entire life because I haven’t been sleeping good. I’ve been getting three to four hours a night. I’ve been getting these reoccurring headaches. I’ve been getting nightmares, reoccurring thoughts of the incident in my head.”
You can watch his interview below (quote is available at 26:37)
Another officer noted his resemblance to Walker. "We have similar facial features. I mean, I can look at him and see part of myself in him and that’s something I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life that I had to take somebody’s life. I did what I did because of my training, my experience, but it’s not something that I wanted to do."
You can watch his interview below (quote is available at 28:53)