Jayland Walker's family attorney criticizes police for turning off mics, cameras
Lawyer Bobby DiCello voiced the family's frustration at the press conference after the Akron Beacon Journal's attorneys successfully fought last week for the release of additional police body-camera footage showing what happened in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.
Jayland Walker's family is "sad, angered and offended" that new information about what happened continues to "trickle out" two months after eight Akron officers shot and killed the 25-year-old Akron man, an attorney for the family said to a row of television cameras in the back parking lot of St. Ashworth Temple on Vernon Odom Boulevard.
The videos, which the city initially declined to release, largely backed up what police said happened. Officers handcuffed Walker about a minute after the shooting and then began providing medical aid. Those who fired their weapons were rounded up and separated from each other after a few minutes.
DiCello on Tuesday took issue with each of the eight officers in the footage either turning off their microphones or cameras soon after the shooting. In the video, supervisors and colleagues tell officers who haven't already done so to turn off the cameras or "go blue" — a reference to a blue light that blinks on the Axon recording device when the camera is on but audio is not collected.
A police spokesman last week said that officers appeared to follow department procedure, which allows officers to disengage bodycams when no longer interacting with civilians.
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But DiCello said turning off sound and audio after Walker's shooting clouds the transparency Akron deserves from its police department.
"What did they say? What did they do?" DiCello asked.
He also called on the city to publicly apologize to the Walker family for the shooting and its handling of the aftermath.
"We have been asked by the city to be good girls and boys, to follow the rules, to keep calm, to remain peaceful, to not yell too much, commit no crime, be patient let the process play out," DiCello said.
“We’re all supposed to follow (rules) and after they shoot and end the life of Pam Walker’s son, they turn off their mics, they turn off their cameras," he said.
If officers want to be heroes, they should set examples with transparency, integrity and empathy, he said.
"What is heroic about turning off your camera, Superman? What is heroic about turning off your microphone, Wonder Woman?” DiCello asked.
At a city press conference on July 3, during which the city shared clips from the longer-form videos released last week, Police Chief Steve Mylett told Walker's mother, Pam, and sister, Jada: "I'm very sorry for your loss."
On Tuesday, DiCello called the July 3 sympathy from the police chief "a presentation apology." The attorney said the apology was given while casting Walker as "a monster," so the family could not accept it.
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During the press conference, the Rev. Ray Greene of The Freedom BLOC, Judi Hill of the Akron NAACP and Walker family member and pastor Robert DeJournett asked the community, corporate leaders and elected officials to support the Walker family, hang tough and push for police reforms to prevent similar shootings.
DiCello asked to talk to someone at the city who has seen all the video and available evidence, not a public relations person without intimate knowledge. Communication has been limited to the law department, DiCello said.
"We need to talk," he said.
"Stop insulting us with your silence and your violence," DiCello said, referencing confrontations in recent weeks between police and protesters.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron police turned off bodycam audios after Jayland Walker shooting
