Akron woman details a year of racial harassment that ended in a hail of gunfire

Between 4 and 4:30 on July 30, a racially charged dispute between two Stoddard Avenue neighbors in Akron came to a head in a hail of gunfire.

One of the two victims was injured so severely, her heart stopped during treatment and her survival was in question for two days. She has had several surgeries, but some of the damage to her intestines couldn’t be fully repaired. Her quality of life will be forever impaired.

The other victim, 21-year-old Teasijah Rogers, was struck in the buttocks and leg as she scrambled for shelter by a vehicle.

More:Man charged with assault in shooting of two women in West Akron neighborhood

One shot caused most of her damage, she said.

“It went through my shin,” she said in a recent interview at her mother’s home. “It broke my tibia bone, so I had to get a steel rod put in.”

She’s undergoing physical therapy to walk and repair the damage.

“It will take months,” she said Sunday.

‘Down there hiding with a knife’

Rogers said she began experiencing harassment at her apartment in July 2021. She says the man charged with shooting her, apartment neighbor Jason Turkovich, 39, was likely responsible for a series of intimidating actions.

At various times, the breaker box to her apartment was bolted shut, her electric was cut off, she was threatened with a knife and security cameras had been stolen or defaced with spray paint.

“It started last year in July; he began to remove my cameras that the landlord gave me permission to (install),” she said. “I called the police and made multiple reports about it.”

She said one camera, her Ring camera, was eventually returned.

On July 24, days before the shooting, Rogers went to the breaker box in the basement to restore her power when she was confronted by Turkovich.

“He was down there hiding with a knife,” she said.

She recorded the confrontation on her cellphone. The video shows Turkovich jumping out with a knife in hand as she walks down the stairs.

“Cut me! Cut me!” Rogers cries out.

“Get the (expletive) back from me,” Turkovich says, a cigarette dangling from his mouth.

The camera jostles as she flees up the stairs.

“You see him? You see him?” Rogers says to the camera.

Roger’s mother, Deshawna Johnson, said Turkovich made ominous threats to her daughter.

“He said, ‘I’m going to take care of her one way or another,’” Johnson said. “‘I’m going to neutralize her.’”

After she called the police and reported incidents, Rogers said the harassment slowed down for a while but didn’t stop. She said she didn't feel safe in the Stoddard Avenue apartment.

“I’m young and I’m there alone,” she said.

‘He called me a prostitute’

Before Rogers was hurt, she went to school during the day and worked at a hair salon at night, often returning home late evening.

“When (Turkovich) got arrested for aggravated menacing with the knife, they told her they were going to give her a TPO (temporary protective order) and they never did,” Johnson said.

No record for an aggravated menacing charge could be found in Summit County court records online.

Rogers said her neighbor played loud music in the early morning hours when she tried to sleep.

“A lot of the music he played had the 'n' word in it,” she said. “He called my mom a (racial slur), a few times. He called me a prostitute.”

An apartment doused with gasoline

On the day she was shot, a Saturday, Rogers had been away from her apartment and returned, accompanied by her aunt, to find the door had been nailed shut.

Once they were able to get inside, they found gasoline poured on the walls and furniture.

“It was just everywhere,” Rogers said. “The smell began to get too strong… I went outside.”

That was about 4 p.m.

Once they were back outside, a family friend pulled up. When another neighbor came by, tensions increased.

Her aunt, who was the other woman shot in the incident, was using a phone to take video of the female neighbor.

“She tried to take my aunt’s phone out of her hand when she was recording her,” Rogers said. “...(Turkovich) comes out with a gun.”

Rogers said she tried to record Turkovich, and the shooting began soon afterward. While Turkovich shot at her and her aunt, the family friend returned fire. The family friend has not been charged.

Neither shooter was hit by gunfire, but Rogers and her aunt wound up on the ground, unable to find shelter.

“I had tried to take cover and get under the car, but I couldn’t fit because the car was too close to the ground,” Rogers said.

When police came, the family friend surrendered immediately, according to a police account of the incident. Turkovich ran away as officers administered first aid until EMS arrived. Both Rogers and her aunt were taken to Cleveland Clinic Akron General. Turkovich was found behind a nearby apartment building and arrested, police said.

“My aunt, you could see her losing consciousness,” Rogers said. “[I told police] please take her first, take her first.”

Rogers said she knew her aunt’s injuries were more severe than her own.

“Once she said she got shot in her stomach, I knew it was serious,” she said.

‘If this was a Black person, he would never be out’

Johnson, who was in Florida at the time, cried all the way home on the plane ride as her sister struggled in the hospital.

“For 48 hours, they didn’t know what the outcome would be,” she said.

By Aug. 5, when Rogers and Johnson were interviewed for this article, Turkovich had posted bond and returned to the Stoddard Avenue address, the women said.

Both women said they believe Turkovich was treated differently because of his race. He is white; Rogers and her aunt are both Black.

“If this was a Black person, he would never be out,” Johnson said.

Rogers said she was disappointed that a year of verbal and physical harassment didn’t bring charges and jail time for her neighbor before the shooting erupted.

“I wanted the officers to take it more seriously,” she said.

Akron city and police officials did not respond to requests for comment on the case, which remains under investigation. Summit County court records show Turkovich was charged with felonious assault, filed by the court on Friday. The first-degree felony can result in a prison term of three to 11 years.

Rogers said she was told by a prosecutor that additional charges could come after a Summit County grand jury review of the evidence. Efforts to reach Turkovich for comment were unsuccessful, and no attorney for him was listed in court documents.

Johnson said she believes the gasoline points to deadly plans that Turkovich had for her daughter.

“I think he was going to light the apartment on fire when she came home,” she said.

Leave a message for Alan Ashworth at 330-996-3859 or email him at aashworth@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @newsalanbeaconj.

More:'What the heck is this?' Akron teacher fights false criminal charge after her ID is stolen

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron woman details year of racial harassment that ended with gunfire