Numerous Americans have been left outraged after a Black man who has been identified as Jayland Walker in Akron, Ohio, was killed bythe Ohio State police as he ran away following a traffic stop.
According to Robert Dicello, who is the lawyer to Walker’s family, some of the Ohio police officers had shot at Walker at least 60 times during the incident which had occurred on Monday.
The lawyer had also cited police body-camera video that he viewed.
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Akron Police Department said in a Tuesday statement that its officers attempted to stop 25-year-old Walker at 12:30 a.m. for a traffic violation and conducted a pursuit after he refused to stop. After a few minutes, Walker slowed down and left his car while it was still in motion and ran away from police, according to the statement.
The statement said Walker ran into a parking lot, and “actions by the suspect caused the officers to perceive he posed a deadly threat to them.”
Officers shot him 100 times, with the bullets hitting him 60 times. They then called for medical services, but Walker was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the statement.
Bobby DiCello, the attorney for Walker’s family, had also mentioned to the Akron Beacon Journal in an interview published Friday evening that Walker does not appear to have gestured toward the officers in a threatening way, based on the body-cam video he viewed.
He said officers appear to have fired dozens of shots at Walker while he was fleeing with nothing in his hands.
The police department said in its statement that the officers involved have been placed on paid administrative leave in accordance with departmental procedure. It did not name them.
Walker’s death has also been contrasted by rights activists with the way police in Kentucky handled a white man, Lance Storz, who killed three policemen.
Lance Storz from Prestonburg also killed a K9 dog and wounded five other cops in Prestonburg, Eastern Kentucky with a heavy rifle on Thursday, while the police attempted to serve a warrant. He was arrested alive without a scratch.
