AKRON, Ohio — Officials said if all remains calm, the city will lift a curfew for most of downtown that was issued Monday, July 4 to quell protesters in the wake of the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Jayland Walker, an unarmed Black man, one week earlier.
Protesters initially were peaceful, heeding a request Walker’s mother and sister, Pamela and Jada Walker, communicated over the past week. But late Sunday night into early Monday morning, protesters began damaging downtown business property, leading to a number of arrests, police said.
In a statement Tuesday, Mayor Dan Horrigan said the curfew is planned to be lifted at Wednesday, July 6 at 6 a.m., “In an effort to support all those who are peacefully protesting.”
Horrigan thanked those who made their voices heard peacefully and referred to it as their right.
“As always, public safety remains our top priority and I urge our community to report any instances or threats of violence or destruction so that a small group of agitators does not cause further damage to our city and small businesses,” he said.
The protests initially began gathering on downtown streets Sunday, July 3 while a press conference was underway to give the community the first look at police body-worn camera footage of the shooting.
Walker, a 25-year-old Black man, was fatally wounded by police early Monday after he led them on a four-minute car chase. Police said Walker discharged a gun at the officers in pursuit, which caused the situation to escalate.
Video shows that when the chase ended, Walker, unarmed, got out of his vehicle in a parking lot. It is still unclear what happened in that moment that caused eight police officers to shoot, striking Walker roughly 60 times.
The protests began calmly, but before it was over about 20 downtown businesses had windows smashed out, as protesters made their way through downtown.
Adria and Mike Bucek have owned Chameleon Café Akron on South Main Street for six years.
“Nineteen businesses between Mill Street and Exchange Street suffered damage to 101 windows and doors,” Adria Bucek said.
The Buceks stayed at home and watched a live stream of the protest.
“We had cameras set up at the windows, but, you know, we didn't want to be anywhere near anything,” she said.
Many of the businesses that were damaged are newly established, she said.
“It didn’t happen until between midnight and 1 a.m., at the very end. It all happened so fast,” she said. “The police came down and started using tear gas to try to disburse the crowd, and everyone ran.”
When the crowd ran, they moved south down Main Street, she said.
The following day, after Mike rode his scooter through town and saw the damage from the night before, the couple boarded up their restaurant’s windows, but all remained calm Monday night.
“We're supportive of the cause. The family is asking for peaceful protests and yesterday went really well,” she said. “So we're hoping that remains during the course of the investigation.”
South of Chameleon Café Akron, the damage was worse, with many businesses on both sides of Main Street boarded up, some with their entire front display windows gone.
Cilantro Thai & Sushi Restaurant, near the intersection of West Exchange and South Main streets, lost two large display windows, while businesses all around it suffered major damage.
Cilantro owner Charlie Somtrakool is no stranger to upheaval. His business, like many others downtown, weathered not only the pandemic, but the $40 million reconstruction of the downtown that kept large sections of the city’s main business district closed and streets blocked off over the past several years.
In addition, several businesses near Cilantro were severely damaged in the protests that followed the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020.
“We are so lucky,” he said. “I don't know how we got away with that.”
Somtrakool said he was worried about what might happen in Akron after Sunday’s press conference, which he watched from home via the city’s live stream.
The city had already closed off the police station and courthouse area with heavy equipment, so downtown already felt a little like war zone. Akron also had cancelled its Ribs, White and Blue Festival, which has been an Akron institution over the Fourth of July for many years.
“So I came here around 8 p.m. and everything was fine. Everything was quiet. Everything was peaceful,” he said. “So I said, ‘Well, that probably will be fine.’ So I went home.”
About 1 a.m. Somtrakool’s security company called to report that his restaurant’s alarms were going off. He rushed back to the restaurant, and couldn’t get through Main Street. He backtracked to come in on side streets to the back of the business and found the restaurant’s large windows broken.
“Shattered to bits,” he said. “And they just left me to deal with the cleanup.”
Downtown Akron Partnership, a nonprofit that works to support downtown businesses, brought in city contractors to board up the broken windows, he said.
But the bigger issue is what people were protesting, Somtrakool said, with this event the second riot the city has seen in two years.
“Both times we are protesting about the same issue, which is police brutality,” he said. “We want to send our condolences to the family of Jayland Walker. You know, we are grieving along with our community with what happened.”
Still, violence and property destruction are not going to solve anything, he said, and it doesn’t respect the Walker family’s wishes.
Many of the damaged businesses on South Main Street will be closed over the next few days while damage is repaired, but Cilantro will remain open, Somtrakool said.
