'Our hearts are hurting': Jayland Walker's family reacts to grand jury decision
Most of Jayland Walker's family didn't speak at a news conference that dealt with their continued trauma. They had a chorus to do so for them.
And that group stated loudly what Walker's mother, Pamela, and sister, Jada, could not or would not.
Pam Walker sat behind her lawyer Bobby DiCello for much of a 45-minute news conference at the St. Ashworth Temple Church of God in Christ mostly looking straight ahead, shell shocked. Her daughter, Jada, sat with clenched hands for much of the time while her right leg released significant energy from constant bouncing up and down.
Jada didn’t say a word. Pam Walker only said a few.
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Although she reacted with an occasional nod, the most significant words of the early evening came when U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes said, “Jayland should be here today.”
Pam Walker replied with an audible, “Yes, he should.”
The sentiment was one everyone in attendance — Black, brown and white — seemed to agree upon after a special grand jury elected not to indict eight police officers in the June 27 shooting death of 25-year-old Jayland Walker, who was hit 46 times.
The Rev. Robert DeJournett, a relative and the pastor of St. Ashworth, acknowledged the Walker family isn’t doing particularly well.
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“Our hearts are hurting. Yeah, our hearts are heavy. We talked about peace. Pamela and Jada are not feeling peaceful right now,” he said. “We're not advocating violence at all, but we don't feel peaceful. They're broken into pieces. We talk about being calm. How can we be calm when the injustice we believe has happened? And this is a sad, sad day for our family and our community.”
Decision on police in the Jayland Walker case creates anger
There was anger after the grand jury decided the eight Akron police officers who shot Walker after a car and foot chase shouldn't face criminal charges. But it’s an emotion that some said can be channeled into something positive.
The Rev. Raymond Greene Jr., executive director of The Freedom BLOC, a group focusing on Black leadership, issued a call to Black men for unity.
“Anger is an emotion that is felt when a wrong is done to you,” Greene said. “And this wrong is done to us too many times to the city of Akron: board up everything that you want to do. But we are coming. To my friends, to my brothers, to Black men: we need you. To gang members in the city of Akron: we need you.
“There is one clear and present enemy in the city, in this county and the state, in this country, and their name is Jim and Jane Crow,” he said, “and, and we'll not rest until we put them to bed.”
Judi Hill, president of the Akron chapter of the NAACP, reiterated a call to the Akron Police Department to end frivolous traffic stops and car chases.
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“We need to let them know that enough is enough. The only change that's ever really happened in this country is out of chaos,” she said. “I'm not going to use the word 'peaceful.' I'm sorry. Right now, my head is saying, ‘change.’ Yes, change has to happen. And this is the start, folks. So young people, I said it earlier in a video to you, do your TikToks, get on Facebook, keep it smart, safe. Do what you need to do to keep up the heat. We don't want them to think that you get away with this again.”
What does justice look like for Jayland Walker's family?
Sykes said she would formally ask the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to investigate Walker’s death.
“They don't have to, but I do hope that they are listening to the voices of Ms. Walker, to the voices of this community and take it upon themself to find the will to investigate what happened not only with Mr. Walker, with Jayland,” she said, “but the patterns and the practices of the Akron police that would allow for officers to feel like they could shoot 90 rounds, hitting a young man 46 times and then handcuffing him afterwards.”
Walker family lawyer DiCello said he thought it was a possibility, courtesy of conversations he'd had with a couple of prosecutors, that indictments would come in some fashion.
“Now I'm not bringing the prosecution and I didn't see the evidence, but I saw what I saw on TV today, and that's what I'm commenting about, what I saw on TV … Jayland didn't have a chance if what I saw on TV was given to the grand jury,” he said.
Denied redress by the state of Ohio, the Walkers’ legal team will file a civil lawsuit between June 1 and June 25, he said.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Jayland Walker family reacts after grand jury clears Akron officers
