Summit Grand Jury: No Charges in Jayland Walker Police-Involved Shooting Death

FILE – This is a poster on the stage during a news conference following the funeral service for Jayland Walker at the Akron Civic Center in Akron, Ohio, Wednesday, July 13, 2022. On June 27, 2022 Walker was unarmed when Akron police chased him on foot and killed him in a hail of bullets, but officers believed he had shot at them earlier from a vehicle and feared he was preparing to fire again, authorities said. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

(AKRON, Ohio) — A Summit County grand jury Monday declined to indict eight law enforcement officers from the Akron Police Department in the death last year of 25-year-old Jayland Walker of Akron.

Ohio Attorney General David Yost made the announcement from Columbus.

The jurors poured over the evidence for more than a week.

“The question for the grand jury was not whether this was a horrible tragedy, as it clearly was,” AG Yost said.

“The question the grand jury was charged with evaluating was whether the officers were justified in their actions.”

“The grand jury – nine citizens who live in Summit County – determined that the officers were justified.”

Walker was fatally shot in the early morning hours of June 27, 2022 in a Sooth Main Street parking lot by eight officers, suffering more than 40 bullet wounds.