Marchers take to the streets of Akron in protest of Jayland Walker shooting

For more than three hours Friday evening, community activists gathered in Akron's Highland Square, chanting, marching and carrying signs to express their outrage over the death of Jayland Walker.

Eight Akron officers fatally shot Walker 46 times on June 27 after he led officers on a crosstown car chase, during which police say the 25-year-old Black man fired a single shot from his vehicle. Walker was unarmed and running in a ski mask when he was shot after a short foot chase near Wilbeth Road and South Main Street. Police say a handgun was found in his vehicle.

Friday's demonstration was originally planned in anticipation of a decision by a grand jury that's considering whether charges are warranted in Walker's shooting. Despite the likelihood that a decision won't come until next week, the demonstration went ahead as planned.

During the march, a handful of verbal altercations between bystanders and protesters threatened to boil over, but cooler heads prevailed and the protest remained peaceful.

Beginning at 5 p.m., several activists dressed in black, many wearing masks, began showing up, gradually lining Market Street under the watchful eye of circling helicopters. By 6 p.m., their numbers had swelled. All told, several dozen protesters participated.

The occasional supportive honk went up from passing traffic, some drivers or passengers giving the line of activists a thumbs-up or holding their fist out the window in solidarity.

Although it posted information about the protest, Serve the People Akron, a self-described "collective of Northeast Ohio organizations and revolutionaries working toward the liberation of all people," said on social media that it did not organize the demonstration.

"Message is being relayed from the community," the group wrote on Facebook. "This protest is not organized by any organization. It is the will of The People."

Frustration and pain

Among the crowd was Walker's cousin, Demetrius Travis Sr. In the months following his cousin's death, Travis said, he's been dealing with mixed emotions.

"You go through the hurt, the pain, then you have to go through the anger — the five stages (of grief)," he said. Compounding the already painful situation, he said, is his frustration with the way police seem to disproportionately kill Black people rather than bringing them in on charges when they're suspected of wrongdoing, not only in Akron but nationwide.

"It makes us feel irrelevant," Travis said.

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Seeing the city boarding up buildings before a decision is reached telegraphed to Travis that justice won't prevail in his cousin's case. To him, justice would mean charges for the officers involved in his cousin's death.

Cheraki Hills was out in the hope that she can help effect change in the city's police department, specifically a better training regiment focused on avoiding lethal force.

She was upset the grand jury hasn't reached a decision yet, saying she hopes jurors ultimately decide that charges are warranted.

"They shouldn't be able to get away with this," she said of the officers involved, adding that Walker didn't deserve to be shot. "Nobody deserves to be killed," Hills said.

Seeing the outpouring of support from a diverse community heartened her, however.

"It feels good, coming together. Especially Akron, because that very rarely happens," said Hills.

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‘Whose streets? Our streets!’

After several minutes of chanting, the crowd moved onto Market Street and then began marching through the surrounding neighborhoods, making a loop in Highland Square. Through a bullhorn, a demonstrator called for people to come out of their houses and cars to join the march. Police vehicles could be seen at a number of points along the route but appeared to keep their distance.

Someone would call out, "Whose streets?" and the crowd answered, "Our streets."

As marchers arrived again in the heart of Highland Square, the situation became tense.

Demonstrators stood in the intersection of South Highland Avenue and Market Street, backing up traffic along Highland. Cars were fenced in by a fire truck parked down the block, stopping anyone from turning around. A couple in a white BMW exited their car, yelling at protesters to move.

The argument was defused by onlookers. Eventually, the fire truck left and traffic was able to turn around and leave the area. Akron fire officials said the engine was on a run for a porch fire.

A man wandered through the protest, phone up, filming, with a gun on his hip. Numerous protesters engaged with him, the situation again becoming tense before cooling off.

As the light began to fade, the protest started to wind down.

Toward the end, one of the participants took the bullhorn and promised an extended campaign.

"We got all summer, y'all. Let this simmer. We're not going to boil over the top, we're not going to burn ourselves out like we did last year," they said. "We just made Akron cops get on overtime, chase us around Highland Square for nothing. We're going to run them ragged this entire (expletive) summer."

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Contact reporter Derek Kreider at DKreider@Gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron protests as Jayland Walker grand jury decision looms