AKRON, Ohio — Ohio’s primary election is May 2. One of the biggest races in the state is the Akron mayoral race.

What You Need To Know

  • Ohio’s primary election is May 2

  • Akronites will vote on who will likely be their next mayor since only Democrats have registered

  • The city has been in turmoil following the grand jury’s decision not to indict any of the eight officers involved in the fatal shooting of Jayland Walker

Akron has been in turmoil following a special grand jury’s decision not to indict the eight police officers who shot and killed Jayland Walker.  

The City of Akron has seen some sort of demonstration nearly every day since that decision.

Spectrum News 1 sat down with all seven Akron mayoral hopefuls and asked them all the same questions regarding how they plan to navigate the tensions between the community and the city, if elected.

“As the mayor, I think the first responsibility was to go and talk to the people. I think that should have happened immediately, and I think it would have brought a little more peace and understanding to the decision,” Tara Mosley said. “I think that not happening is really, really what set the chain of events that happened thereafter, because there was no leadership.” 

“I know there is a number of people in the community who aren’t happy with that decision,” Marco Sommerville said. “But that is the decision, and we have to move the city forward. I think there needs to be a discussion about exactly what happened and more information needs to get out.” 

On April 19, Akron police and Summit County sheriffs deployed chemical irritants on a large crowd of protesters on Copley Road in Akron.

Spectrum News 1 asked the candidates their thoughts on that use of force to disperse a crowd. 

“What happened on Wednesday with the pepper spray and the tear gas was unnecessary escalation, and it was really unfortunate,” Shammas Malik said. “People are there protesting what many people see as excessive force, right? They should not be subjected to tear gas and pepper spray when most of the people in that crowd are not doing anything wrong.” 

“This is a part of the healing process — people need to be heard,” Keith Mills said. “I believe where the tear gas was administered, you may have one or two bad actors, but that is not something you should be doing as a community — teargassing our own people and setting off canisters to disperse a crowd.” 

Following the Copley Road protests, The Akron Bail Fund took the city to federal court, and now there is a temporary ban on the use of tear gas, batons, pepper spray and other methods against nonviolent protesters. All of the candidates said they were aware of this temporary ban with the exception of deputy mayor Sommerville. 

“The way that we treat one another is of the upmost importance," Mark Greer said. “When I saw videos of children, coughing and spitting up because they had been subjected to chemical irritants that were sprayed, that is not the way that we as a city should ever treat our citizens, so I would like to see that permanently banned.” 

“I personally believe that there should be a permanent ban on using things like that, unless things get really out of hand,” Joshua Schaffer said. “If we are talking about one or two windows being broken, that’s not really, really out of hand. There is other ways we can handle that kind of a thing. If we are talking about dozens and dozens of people looting, then I think it does need to be reserved for some situations.”

Many of the candidates believe that the city was not transparent enough with Akron residents throughout this situation and would like to see that change moving forward. 

“Having open dialogue with the community and allowing people the opportunity to be heard as a result of that, I think it helps with the healing,” Jeff Wilhite said. “I don’t know that the community will ever heal from this because it was a tragic situation all the way around, but I would have supported, if mayor, I would have supported seeking for peace.”

Although May 2 is the Democratic primary, it's likely that one of these seven candidates will become Akron’s next mayor because only Democrats have filed to run.