Although the death of the black man Jayland Walker in the hail of bullets by the US police caused horror, the US police officers directly involved in the operation do not have to answer in court for the time being. A jury of jurors on Monday denied indictment of the eight police officers who killed the 25-year-old with dozens of gunshots last summer in Ohio state. He himself fired at least one shot at officers during a car and foot chase in the city of Akron, prosecutor Dave Yost said. A criminal case will not come about, but it is possible that Walker’s relatives will still seek compensation through a civil lawsuit.
In the United States there has long been a debate about excessive police violence, especially against blacks. The Jayland Walker case now faced a private grand jury, which decided whether the facts presented by the prosecution warranted an indictment. “The grand jury — nine Summit County citizens — concluded that the officers’ actions were reasonable,” said Attorney Yost. Due to the amount of evidence presented, the examination took more than a week, significantly longer than usual. He had started publishing the evidence online to create as much transparency as possible in a difficult case involving the police.
Walker’s body was riddled with bullet holes
Walker’s death on June 27, 2022 caused outrage across the country. The autopsy found 46 entry and graze wounds on the body, 26 projectiles were still stuck in the body. Injuries to the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, left kidney, intestine and several ribs were recorded. Walker’s family spoke of brutal and senseless police violence, and the incident sparked protests in Akron.
According to the police, Walker was to be stopped at a traffic stop, but he continued to drive. During the ensuing chase, Walker fired a shot from the moving car, prosecutor Yost said. Finally, with a ski mask on his head, he continued to flee on foot. The officials initially tried unsuccessfully to stop him with electric batons, it said. The suspect then stopped in a parking lot and turned to the police officers. “However, since the officers did not know that Walker had left his gun in the car, they believed that he would shoot them again,” Yost said. That’s why they shot him.
