AKRON, Ohio — The Ohio Attorney General has released a trove of evidence collected in the investigation into the fatal shooting of Jayland Walker.
It's been publicly known for months that police tried to stop Walker for a broken license plate light, sparking a chase. Police said they believe Walker fired a shot at them from his car.
Newly released evidence shows two shell casings were found. One in Walker's car, and one on State Route 8. According to evidence, that second casing was linked to Walker's weapon through ballistic testing.
Anthony Pierson, who oversaw the case, described the police response after hearing shots fired on the radio..
“The officers call a signal 21," Pierson said. "That is the highest response signal for the Akron Police Department. That indicates that something very bad is going on. An officer is being shot at. Everyone respond.”
Body camera shows Walker running from the passenger side of the car. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation found that two officers deployed their tasers, but didn’t subdue Walker. Soon after, eight officers fired a total of 94 shots. More than 40 of them hit Walker.
BCI estimated that the shots were fired in just under seven seconds.
All of this evidence was available for the Attorney General's office to present to the grand jury. Defense attorney and law professor Ian Friedman said the goal of this evidence is to put members of the grand jury in the shoes of police officers in the moment on the night of the shooting.
“The only question that matters is, at that moment, under those circumstances, would a reasonable officer have believed that they or someone else were in the way of imminent harm or danger?" Friedman said. "And so that’s really what would have happened here. This grand jury would have looked at it frame by frame by frame by frame. And they had to have looked at it not from their perspective this week, but that very night. On the side of the road while chasing Mr. Walker, having just gotten out of the car and with the information they were provided."
In their interviews with BCI agents, several officers said they believed Walker turned toward them and reached for his waistband.
“I remember him, and see him put his hands into his like waistband area," an officer said during an interview with BCI. "Again, like I said, that’s where people normally keep firearms and weapons.”
“It’s very indicative of somebody that’s reaching for a weapon or some sort of, some.. something that he shouldn’t be," the officer said.
Several officers said in their interviews with BCI that they kept shooting until there was no longer a threat. Body camera video captured an officer calling for a ceasefire. That officer told investigators he said that out of fear that he would get shot by another officer.
Since grand jury proceedings are secret, the public can't know which evidence the grand jury got to hear. But Friedman said it is the job of the prosecutor to give them the information they need and to guide them through the case.
"This grand jury was really dedicated to this matter. So when we talk about special, is it in the sense of the word is it any more special than any other grand jury? No," Friedman said. "It is just focused on this particular case. The sensitivity of it and the gravity of it and the complexity of it."
Friedman said ultimately, it's the grand jury and not the prosecutor who decides the outcome of the case.
"At the end of the day, the grand jury is free to ask what questions they want, to indict the case however they want, or not to," Friedman said. "Ultimately, they are the bosses in there."