AKRON, Ohio — In a charged news conference, the attorneys for the family of Jayland Walker demanded that the City of Akron turn over all video and information they say the public has the right to see, days after new body camera footage of the moments after Walker’s shooting was released as the result of a legal challenge from a local news outlet.
“Since I've spoken to you for the very first time at the very first press conference that we held some weeks ago, we have seen the city again and again and again insult and humiliate this family, insult and humiliate the citizens and the residents of the city of Akron and of Northeast Ohio,” attorney Bobby DiCello said.
Watch the full news conference in the video player below:
Last week, the City of Akron released new body camera video from officers, recorded moments after Walker was shot by eight officers during a foot pursuit in June. The Akron Beacon Journal spent two months pushing video not released during the city's July 3 press conference.
Watch the July 3 press conference:
At times during the news conference, DiCello spoke scornfully about the fact that this video with withheld from the public until now.
"Rules are a funny thing. We're all supposed to follow them. And after they shoot and end the life of Pam Walker's son, they turn off their mics. They turn off their cameras. What do they say? What did they do? Think about that. We can't do that. There's no reality where a citizen can do that," DiCello said.
Attorney Ken Abbarno called on the city to release any additional video and more information about why officers disabled their microphones and cameras.
“What's very confusing and what results in anger is — why didn't we hear the additional pieces to the story that are now beginning to make their way out? Why didn't we hear that microphones were turned off? Why didn't we hear that video was turned off? This was all known,” Abbarno said. “This was all known to the people who put on that press conference [in early July]. This was not known to any of us. Until last week when a decision was made to finally release some of that additional information.”
Abbarno said that “everything is happening on the city’s terms” in regards to the release of information, suggesting that Akron is not honoring the law passed in 2021 that established processes for the transparent release of video and information related to officer-involved shootings.
“We've seen the story evolve and evolve and evolve,” he said. “We have not been evolving that story. It needs to stop. It needs to stop now. The invitations that we have made to talk are being ignored.”
Abbarno said that while there is an active investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, there is nothing stopping the city from releasing more information.
“The time is now to provide all of the information. There's no reason to wait. There's absolutely no reason to wait,” Abbarno said. “We know an investigation is going on by BCI, but seemingly, seemingly, the city can still provide information at their leisure, information that they choose to provide. The Walker family and everybody deserves more. Refusing to do so just demonstrates a lack of respect for this family, a lack of respect that should not be tolerated by anybody here.”
After the additional body camera video was released to the Akron Beacon Journal amid a legal right for its release, News 5 questioned Akron Police about the video, which appears to portray someone uttering the words “Go Blue” before the camera’s audio is muted.
News 5 Investigators asked Akron police what "Go Blue" means.
“It’s not any sort of a department procedural or chief’s order type of language; each shift might have some type of language that they use,” said Capt. David Laughlin.
Laughlin said depending on circumstances, officers are permitted to mute cameras under procedure.
“One of them is when you don’t have contact with the citizen any longer,” said Capt. Laughlin.
RELATED: In newly released Jayland Walker shooting video, the phrase 'Go Blue' is heard before audio is muted
Watch Tara Morgan's story:
DiCello told News 5 during the news conference Tuesday that while he is in “disagreement with that point of view,” due to the possibility of depositions and questions in court, he’s not prepared to discuss specific reasons why he and his legal team disagree with policy in that regard.
He said that the first he saw of the new body camera video was when it was released to the Akron Beacon Journal on Friday, and he did not know why the videos were kept from his team or the public.
“You're going to have to ask the city that. I'm not in their heads. I have some thoughts. It doesn't look so good. I'll say that,” DiCello said, adding that he received no explanation from the city for the reason for releasing and withholding the videos they have.
“We didn't get any explanation as to what videos they've released or why they've only released the ones they released and why they are now just releasing this one Friday,” he said. "We are not getting any kind of communication from them on that.”
DiCello did not say whether or not the city actually violated the letter of the law of the city’s transparency ordinance, but said the city’s current method of releasing information to the public has been detrimental to the Walker family.
“More video earlier would have been helpful,” DiCello said. “It would have prevented this moment. You guys understand that every time I come up here and our team gathers, Pam [Walker] goes through a living nightmare. She relives this. So, the city leadership needs to recognize that by slowly trickling out the videos that they get, and to the extent that you all need explanations from us, which you deserve, she has to go through this. And that's the inhumanity of this. It doesn't need to happen.”
Akron NAACP President Judi Hill echoed the attorneys’ calls for transparency and said they have drafted a proposed ballot initiative to establish an independent citizen oversight board for the Akron Police created with input from the city’s Racial Equity Task Force and modeled after similar boards in other cities.
“It won't bring back Jayland Walker. It won't bring back the other individuals that have lost their lives or have lost their families because of police injustice. But we believe this is a step in the right direction,” Hill said.
In his closing remarks, DiCello signaled his support for such a measure.
“We stand with the family and we're honored that Jayland’s name appears in the beginning lines of the legislation that will hopefully someday be law here that would institute a civil review board,” he said.
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