AKRON, Ohio — Soon after Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s announcement Monday that the eight Akron police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Jayland Walker would not be indicted, the state posted the totality of evidence that led a special grand jury to reach that decision.
Although many questions remain regarding Walker’s motives the night he led police on a car chase and was fatally shot, the AG’s website now contains hundreds of files containing interviews, reports, photos, videos and audio clips for public review.
“As you will see, their work was extensive, thorough,” Yost said of the AG’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation, whose investigation was conducted over the past nine months.
Yost began making evidence in investigations into officer-involved shootings available a few years ago, he said, to help communities understand exactly what happened.
“And to know that the investigation was thorough, expert and independent,” Yost said. “To know the truth.”
The Walker file includes about 300 links beginning with a 227-page prosecutor summary, from which Senior Assistant AG Anthony Pierson gave highlights during the AG’s press conference. Pierson is one of the prosecutors who presented evidence to the grand jury last week, Yost said.
The prosecutor summary offers a detailed narrative of the night of June 27, 2022, the night Walker was killed, and includes photos, diagrams and maps.
Walker was shot after leading Akron police on a car and foot chase, evading officers who tried to stop him for a burned-out plate light and a broken tail light, according to police reports.
During the chase, Walker fired at them, police said, prompting additional officers to join the chase.
Walker eventually drove into a parking lot, exited the still-moving vehicle wearing a ski mask and ran. When he stopped and turned, police said they perceived his movements as threatening, causing them to fire.
Walker, who was unarmed, was hit with 46 rounds and died at the scene.
In the first few pages, the prosecutor summary describes Walker’s behavior in the days preceding his death, including his despair over the death of his fiancé, Jaymeisha Beasley, which was gleaned from interviews, mobile-phone records and investigation into Walker’s online activity.
Beasley, who was killed in an auto accident on May 28, was listed in Walker’s phone as “wife,” the report states. The pair had plans to purchase a home together, which fell through a week before his death.
The summary details his encounter with New Franklin police who tried to stop him less than 24 hours before he was killed, for the same equipment violations Akron police picked up on.
Comments made by Walker’s close friend, Dupri Whatley, while interviewing for a job with the Euclid Police Department, are included in the opening pages of the summary and are detailed in a separate report.
According to the report, Whatley, who spoke at Walker’s funeral, told Euclid police “Jayland was depressed and he believed that the incident with the Akron Police Department was possibly, ‘suicide by cop.’”
Whatley later denied making those comments when speaking with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations, the report states.
While some information in the many Walker files linked on the AG site have some redactions, such as some names, phone numbers and witnesses’ personal details, the majority of information in the reports and interviews is available to view. A document explaining the redactions is included in the file.
Reports included in the Walker file provide detail about processing the scene of the shooting and collecting the bullets, which numbered more than 90.
A timeline of events, from Beasley’s death in late May to the night of Walker’s death, is also included in the AG’s records.
Following the shooting, a neighborhood canvass took place to find potential witnesses, which generated a separate 15-page report with images. Investigators also canvassed looking for video surveillance footageand ODOT video that was captured in key areas, for which reports were generated.
Over nine months of investigation, BCI investigators interviewed all the Akron officers involved in the shooting, as well as more than 40 police officers who were not, including several of the Euclid police officers who spoke with Whatley during his job interview.
Records from interviews with Walker’s sister, Jada Walker, and his mother, Pamela Walker as well as contacts found in his mobile phone are on the AG website.
Several search warrants were issued to capture Walker’s banking information and employment activity with both DoorDash and Uber, for which the reports are posted.
A warrant for his Google activity turned up the key words Walker used in his online searches in the days before he died.
Lab results, taser reports and an evidence list are also available to peruse, as is a lengthy report investigators generated following their review of the body-worn camera footage from the officers involved in the shooting.
Information left on a tip line and what took place when investigators followed up are included in the files, as well as information left via an anonymous tip.
Investigators included in the Walker file many photos, some with identifiers and diagrams, as well as several large audio files of interviews and nearly 100 video clips.