State investigation finds four Akron officers emptied clips in Jayland Walker shooting
A 68-page ballistics report released Monday along with logs of evidence and synchronized still frames from police and highway camera systems detail the exhaustive effort of state investigators to account for all 95 bullets fired in the pursuit and death of Jayland Walker.
Cleared of criminal charges by a special Summit County grand jury Monday, eight Akron officers with standard issue 9 mm semi-automatic Glock handguns fired 94 bullets at Walker as he ran, according to the Ohio Criminal of Bureau Investigation report. As a group, they missed Walker half the time. Bullet shrapnel peppered the parking lot where the 25-year-old Walker died from 46 gunshot wounds.
Four of the officers fired 70 of the 94 rounds, pulling their triggers nearly three times per second as they emptied their magazines in less than 7 seconds.
Jayland Walker: What we're learning from BCI investigation into Akron police shooting
BCI: Jayland Walker fired first during chase
Walker fired the 95th bullet earlier that evening after ignoring a traffic stop and turning his Buick Century south onto state Route 8 with an Akron officer close behind, BCI said. A cruiser from Cuyahoga Falls caught the start of that pursuit on a dashboard camera.
It’s that footage, according to the state investigation, that shows Walker’s single shot traveling downward into the highway asphalt.
“When watching the video in real speed, the debris cloud is consistent with a bullet impacting the pavement,” the state investigation said.
But this is the moment that elevated the threat for officers who would later use deadly force.
“Where was he aiming? There is no conclusive evidence as to that," Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said Monday. “I think it's virtually certain that he was shooting the gun at them. He certainly was shooting during the time when police tried to pull him over.”
Walker had recently purchased the handgun at a local firing range. A second spent shell casing was found in his vehicle, but investigators did not say when that round was fired.
The state’s investigation details how many of the eight responding officers emptied their magazines and how many fired more sparingly at Walker. The four who unloaded did not continue to fire after reloading. Three of their firearms carried 18 rounds and the other held 16.
The other four officers — three with 18 bullets each and one with 23 bullets loaded up — fired three, four, six and 11 rounds.
All eight officers, according to state investigators and Akron Police Chief Steve Mylett, mistakenly believed Walker to be armed when they killed him. Walker was running in a ski mask when he spun around to face the officers.
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Some of the officers, also in their statements to investigators, said they thought Walker fired first — not from his vehicle during the car chase but when officers caught up to him on foot in the parking lot near Wilbeth Road and South Main Street. They thought they were returning fire, special agents with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation concluded.
Ultimately, Yost and his team stressed that the officers did not fire first, and that the threat of harm to them and the public was enough to justify lethal force.
“Officers are able to use deadly force only when there's a threat of serious physical harm or deadly force against them,” BCI special counsel Anthony Pierson told the media during a press conference Monday. “So, each and every shot has to be accounted for.”
Along with three discharged Tasers, a BCI agent collected each of the eight officers’ handguns and sent them along with shell casings and shrapnel for testing.
Analysts matched each casing to an officer’s firearm.
Each of the officers carried a Glock 9 mm, though some used versions with shorter grips to account for their smaller hands. These shorter versions wielded by two officers carried 15 bullets in their magazines.
Five of the officers carried the more common Glock 17 with a magazine capacity of 17 rounds. One officer had an extension on his magazine that put five additional rounds at his disposal.
But every officer chambered an extra round. To do so, the officers would have inserted their magazines and pulled back the slide to move a bullet from the magazine to the chamber. Then each officer would have removed and “topped off” their magazine before reinserting them.
“That’s not unusual,” said Charles P. Stephenson, former police officer and FBI firearms instructor, who spoke to the Akron Beacon Journal on Tuesday. “That’s the way it’s carried, one round in the chamber.”
Stephenson also explained that standard officer training calls for the forceful neutralization of threats. And 1 to 2 seconds can pass before the human mind acknowledges that the threat has passed, he added.
“Their perception is that they’re under immediate threat,” Stephenson said. “That perception leads to decision-making, and that leads to firing until the threat diminishes. It’s not that uncommon for that number of rounds to be fired.”
Two of the eight officers, when asked by investigators at the scene, could not recall how many shots they'd fired.
Chief Mylett, who will now conduct an internal review to determine if officers violated any department policy, said the individual officers responded to a perceived threat from each of their unique vantage points.
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"Did Mr. Walker continue to pose a threat?" Mylett asked, rhetorically, during a Tuesday interview. "Now remember, (the officers) have absolutely no idea that (Walker) has taken the magazine out of the gun and put the gun on the driver's seat."
"When he jumps out of the car quick," Mylett said of the restraint officers initially showed, "they didn't shoot him. When he's running away from them and then turns quickly with the ski mask on, they try to Tase him. They try to use less lethal."
It's the second time that Walker spun around, after the Tasers failed to hit their target and Walker ignored commands to stop, that the barrage of 94 rounds began.
Reach reporter Doug Livingston at dlivingston@thebaconjournal.com or 330-996-3792.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: BCI report says 4 officers emptied clips in Jayland Walker shooting
