Jayland Walker

Jayland Walker, 25, was shot and killed by eight Akron, Ohio police officers on June 27, 2022, after fleeing a traffic stop for a broken taillight, firing a single shot from his car during the pursuit, then exiting and running on foot. Police said Walker, who was unarmed when he was shot, made a motion officers interpreted as reaching for a weapon; a gun was later found in his abandoned vehicle. The eight officers fired 94 shots in 6.7 seconds, striking Walker with 46 entrance or graze wounds, including several in the back, according to the county medical examiner. A special grand jury seated by Ohio's attorney general declined to indict any of the officers in April 2023, finding their use of force legally justified. The city later paid Walker's family a $4.8 million settlement. No one has ever been criminally charged in Walker's death.

Akron, OH · Summit County

• 2022: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The traffic stop, chase, and shooting, per Akron Police Department body camera footage released publicly and the Summit County Medical Examiner's autopsy findings.
• Walker fired one shot from his vehicle during the car chase, according to police; a gun was later recovered from his abandoned car, and shell casings recovered at the scene matched it.
• Walker was unarmed at the moment the eight officers opened fire on him after the foot chase.
• The Summit County Medical Examiner found Walker suffered 46 entrance or graze wounds from the 94 total shots fired, with no drugs or alcohol in his system.
• A special nine-member grand jury — three men, six women, two of them Black — reviewed more than 100 interviews and over 50 body-camera videos before declining to indict any of the eight officers on April 17, 2023, per Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.
• The City of Akron settled a federal wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit with Walker's family for $4.8 million, and changed its vehicle-pursuit policy to bar chases over equipment violations alone.

• Whether Walker's motion toward his waistband while running — the act officers cited as justifying deadly force — constituted an actual threat, given he was in fact unarmed at that moment, was never tested at any criminal trial.
• The specific vote count of the special grand jury has never been made public, as Ohio law precludes disclosure of grand jury deliberations.
• Why officers continued firing across the full 6.7-second span, including shots that struck Walker in the back, has not been individually addressed for each of the eight officers involved.

• NPR — “A grand jury did not indict Akron police officers in the Jayland Walker shooting”
• CNN — “Jayland Walker case: Grand jury declines to indict Akron police officers”
• PBS NewsHour — “Akron will pay $4.8 million to relatives of Jayland Walker”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs