What we know about 61 people arrested in July during Jayland Walker protests in Akron

Mostly Black and disproportionately representing lower-income Akron neighborhoods, 61 people were arrested in July during protests of the June 27 police shooting of Jayland Walker.

More have been arrested in August, including some accused of crimes committed in July. Political activists tracking their cases say the total number of arrests is now more than 75.

With defense attorneys filing this week to dismiss all charges against nearly everyone arrested during the city's nightly curfew in July, the Beacon Journal reviewed their court cases.

Protests:Attorneys, activists seek dismissal of charges against 50 arrested Jayland Walker protesters

Here’s who they are and the criminal charges against them.

Akron protest arrests

The 61 people, as a group, are charged with 179 crimes. Four counts comprise 90% of the charges: riot (49), failure to disperse (49), disorderly conduct (33) and misconduct at an emergency (30).

No one arrested in July is facing a felony charge. One man accused of setting a downtown fire July 3 at Main and Church is facing an arson charge in the Akron Municipal Court. If the damage in his case exceeds $300, his charge could jump to the county courthouse as a felony, according to state law.

Jayland Walker protestsAttorneys, activists seek dismissal of charges against 50 arrested during protests

Five people are facing felony charges for aggravated riot stemming from their alleged involvement in the reported assault of a motorcycle rider on July 26. But each of these five defendants was arrested in August.

The 179 protest-related crimes filed in July cover almost entirely non-violent crimes. There’s only one criminal mischief and two damaging or endangering charges.

Based on Summit County Jail booking reports, 45 of the arrestees are Black, 12 are white and the race of the other four is unknown. Thirty-eight are men, 21 are women and gender is not listed for two.

Fifty-two of the 61 (85%) were arrested on July 4, the day after Akron released police video of the Walker shooting.

Officers arrested 42 people (69% of the July total) in front of the police station at the Harold K. Stubbs Justice Center. Only five appear to have been arrested outside the city’s downtown curfew area, which was in place from July 4-5 and July 7-17.

One person was arrested July 4 in the Arlington Plaza, two people that day were arrested on North Howard Street in Akron’s North Hill neighborhood and two others — Cortez Rice and Bianca Austin, the aunt of Breonna Taylor — were arrested in the parking lot of the county jail July 6 while waiting for a friend arrested downtown the day before to be released.

Rice, Austin, Michael Harris (the friend they were waiting for) and Jacob Blake Sr., whose son was shot in 2020 by an officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, are the only four people arrested with out-of-state addresses. Other than a Columbus resident, everyone else is from Northeast Ohio, including 41 from Akron and five others from somewhere in Summit County.

4 cases resolved

Fifty-seven of the 61 cases are pending, according to court records.

Two defendants, each charged with three counts, have plead guilty to one charge. Their other charges were dismissed.

One defendant agreed to return a necklace. All his protest-related charges were then dismissed, according to records.

Another man pleaded to a reduced fourth-degree misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge in exchange for the judge dismissing all original charges of riot, misconduct at an emergency and failure to disperse.

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

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: 61 people facing 179 charges from Jayland Walker protests in July