AKRON, Ohio — A special grand jury is convening Monday in Summit County to consider whether any of the officers involved in the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Jayland Walker should face charges.

Walker was unarmed when he was shot more than 40 times by eight Akron police officers while running from his car following a chase last year.

It will be the grand jury's task to decide whether these eight officers broke any laws.

“But ultimately what the grand jury represents is the formalization of the felony level offenses in the state of Ohio," said Craig Morgan, the chief of the city of Akron's prosecutor's office. "It truly is sort of the beginning of the process for many of our most serious offenses.”

While not involved in the case, he has been serving as a spokesperson for the city to answer community questions. 

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, an arm of the Attorney General's office, investigated the shooting of Walker and will present the evidence to jurors.

“The evidence in a case like this, it is quite frankly going to be very voluminous. You are going to have various witness testimony, a lot of electronic evidence, such as video, audio," Morgan said. "You are going to have forensic reports and potentially have forensic experts testifying.”

There will be nine primary jurors and three to five alternates, in case a juror is sick or out for some reason. The jurors will vote on each charge, and seven of the nine are required to issue an indictment. 

“In the trial jury — which people are so much more familiar with — the prosecutor, the defense attorney and judge all ask questions of potential jurors," Morgan said. "With a grand jury, it's a little bit different because the defense attorney doesn’t have a presence in the room. The prosecutor is there, but the selection process is done primarily by the judge, asking people questions as to whether or not they have anything in their life that might affect their ability to be fair and impartial."

He said the AG office anticipates the presentation of evidence to last about a week. Jurors could vote to issue indictments on all, some or no charges for each of the officers. A decision with indictments is called a "true bill," and one without is called a "no bill."

"We don’t know how long it will take the jurors to come up with a decision," Morgan said. "They could come up with the decision in a day, or they could come up with the decision in a week."

The city of Akron has put up several barricades and boarded up some windows, in what they said is in anticipation of the grand jury's decision.

After Walker was killed last summer, protests broke out across the city. Many are expecting this to repeat if the grand jury chooses not to indict these officers.