Jayland Walker case: Akron releases longer officer videos of shooting death, aftermath

About 12 seconds after eight Akron police officers shot Jayland Walker 46 times, a female officer yells, "he's still moving."

It's hard to make out in new police body-worn camera video the city released late Thursday following a legal challenge from the Akron Beacon Journal. But at one point, Walker appears to raise his right arm a few inches before dropping it.

"Don't (expletive) reach for nothing," another officer shouts as he slowly creeps forward, his gun still drawn and pointed at Walker, who is sprawled on his back in a dark parking lot, his body illuminated by police flashlights.

Jayland WalkerOfficer involved in Jayland Walker shooting previously shot at a suspect in downtown Akron

Walker doesn't appear to move again and he never speaks.

The new longer footage from the eight officers who fired at Walker largely backs up what police have said happened in the immediate aftermath of the June 27 shooting. Video from 13 officers released July 3 as required by a city ordinance were cut off when the shooting stopped.

What the new Jayland Walker police videos show

About a minute after the bullets stopped, video shows police shouting out to make sure no officers were injured. None were. Other officers repeatedly ask where Walker's gun is. Someone finally says they can't see and another officer said they needed to move in and handcuff Walker, who turned out not to be armed.

After officers roll Walker onto his side and put handcuffs on him, video shows police trying to help him. One says Walker appears to be shot up and down his back. Another asks if they need a tourniquet. And others in a crowd of officers crouched around Walker call for more light and gloves.

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After the shooting, while other officers provide aid, the police who fired their weapons begin to walk away and one officer says, "Go blue," like it's a command. Officers leaving the scene then begin muting their microphones, though their cameras continue to record video.

Another male officer tells a female officer involved in the shooting that she should turn off her camera. When she asks, "off or blue," he tells her "off."

Capt. Dave Laughlin said Friday that "go blue" is not an official department code, but police shifts sometimes develop their own language. He said he didn't know what "go blue" might have meant to officers there that night, but there are procedures that allow officers to mute their body-camera microphones.

It's usually after they are finished with a citizen contact, he said, which appears to be the case here since Walker was the only citizen at the scene

The new footage also then shows those officers, with mics switched off, gathering together for a couple of minutes behind police cruisers, even though police have said those officers were immediately sequestered.

It's unclear what was said because there is no audio with the footage.

Laughlin said that there is often some chaos in the immediate aftermath of a police shooting, and explained what happens like this: Once police check on each other and know no one is injured, they ask which officers fired their weapons and identify each.

Then each officer involved is paired with an officer who wasn't involved in the shooting. Each pair goes to a separate police cruiser and waits for detectives, FOP officials, prosecutors and the state Bureau of Criminal Identification to show up at the scene.

The idea, Laughlin said, is to sequester the officers away from each other, just like police sequester any other witnesses. That way, he said, the officers can give "clean" statements that haven't been influenced by what someone else has said or recalls.

In the Walker shooting, the whole situation was made more complicated by how many officers fired their weapons. Police then had to find eight uninvolved officers and enough cruisers to sequester them, which probably took a couple of minutes.

City missed 30-day deadline to release videos

The Beacon Journal pursued the additional body-cam footage to provide an independent look into everything that happened after Walker's shooting.

Walker was shot and killed June 27 following an attempted traffic stop that turned into a cross-town chase. Police said Walker fired a gun during the car chase, though he was unarmed when he fled his car and was was shot by police.

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A week after the shooting, the city released of 13 brief body-cam video clips that each begin a minute prior to the use of deadly force and end abruptly after the eight officers fired as many as 90 shots. The editing prevented media and the public from seeing how the crime scene was handled, including the gathering of evidence, the treatment of Walker's body and the securing of the officers who fired.

The videos released this week only show some of what happened in the minutes immediately after the shooting.

So far, none of the body-cam released by the city shows officers discovering what appears to be key evidence in Walker's car: A handgun, a shell casing and a wedding ring. The city has previously released a still image of the items that it said was taken from police body-cam, but has not provided the video.

The city also has resisted the Beacon Journal's pursuit of more body-cam footage in the case and missed a 30-day deadline to release all video.

The Akron Law Department only relented after the Beacon Journal's attorneys last week sent a letter arguing the city was breaking its own relatively new law aimed at increasing police transparency.

"The City has violated the Police Camera Ordinance by failing to release the remainder of the Footage from City recording devices — including what occurs after the officers’ use of force — within 30 days of each of these Incidents," Lynn Rowe Larsen, attorney for the Beacon Journal, wrote to Akron Law Director Eve Belfance. The Beacon Journal requested the rest of the videos within seven days of the letter, per a requirement in the city's law.

The Beacon Journal on Friday also submitted a renewed request for longer versions of five other previously released videos and footage from all officers who responded to the scene.

Assistant Director of Law Tammy Kalail said the newly released videos, like those previously seen, obscure officers' faces and sensitive information in a database used by officers inside their cars.

All eight officers who fired their weapons that night remain on paid administrative leave, the city confirmed Thursday, which is standard for officers who use deadly force until an internal investigation by Akron police finds wrongdoing or clears them to return to active duty.

Chief Stephen Mylett, over the objection of the police union, asked the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation to review the matter. That external investigation could take up to a year, based on recent cases.

Beacon Journal reporter Emily Mills contributed to this report.

Reach reporter Doug Livingston at dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3792.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Jayland Walker shooting: Akron police release more officer video