Jayland Walker's body had 46 bullet entrance and graze wounds, according to an autopsy by Summit County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Lisa Kohler. On Friday, during a press conference, Kohler said the specific injuries he sustained when he was shot by police included:
- Five of the 46 wounds entered the back of his body; the findings cannot indicate if they were sustained while Walker was running or turning around. Forty-one bullets entered on the front and sides.
- 15 gunshot wounds entered the torso, causing injury to the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, left kidney, intestines and multiple ribs.
- 17 gunshot wounds were to the pelvis and upper legs, causing internal injury to the right iliac artery, a major artery to the leg, and the bladder. Walker’s pelvis and both upper leg bones were fractured.
- One bullet struck Walker’s face, fracturing his jaw.
- Eight gunshot wounds injured his arms and right hand.
- Five gunshot wounds injured his knees and legs.
- 26 bullets were recovered from the body.
It is still unknown exactly how many bullets were fired at Walker by the eight Akron police officers.
Kohler confirmed that Walker was handcuffed when his body was brought to the medical examiner’s office.
“There were handcuffs on his body at the time we received him,” she said. “This is something that happens often enough that we do keep a handcuff key at the office to assist us in those situations.”
Walker tested negative for drugs of abuse and alcohol, Kohler said.
Walker’s hands were not swabbed for gunshot residue because of the unreliability of such a test, Kohler said. Because testing cannot conclusively determine whether an individual did or did not fire a weapon, the FBI stopped testing for gunshot residue in 2006.
The cause of death was blood loss from internal injuries, with the cause of death ruling determined to be multiple gunshot wounds. The manner of death was ruled homicide — shot by others, and Kohler explained that is a medical ruling and not a legal conclusion.
The autopsy showed that at the time of Walker’s death, medical intervention and therapies for his injuries included tourniquets on his legs and left arm, gauze dressings to his chest and abdominal wounds, adhesive seals over two chest wounds and defibrillator pads used on his chest.
The media-only event took place Friday morning. Watch a replay of the news conference below:
Dr. Lisa Kohler answered questions from the media regarding the autopsy process but did provide comment on any other part of the ongoing investigation.
Walker's attorney responds
Following the release of the autopsy results, News 5 spoke with Kenneth Abbarno, one of the attorneys representing the family from the firm DiCello Levitt.
Abbarno said the findings released today showing how many wounds Walker sustained was devasting.
"The information that we heard from Dr. Kohler with 46 wounds — 46 entrance wounds, shows that Jayland unfortunately, as an unarmed man, with no drugs, no alcohol in his system, came to a brutal and senseless death. Absolutely devastating," he said.
According to Abbarno, his firm will sit down with the Walker family to discuss what was released.
“We have confidence as we've sat here that we'll be able to understand the reasons why this happened and find out why these officers shot so many times at an unarmed man, hitting him—what we hear today—potentially up to 46 times causing such devastating injuries to his heart, to his kidneys, to other vital organs that resulted in dramatic blood loss, multiple fractures of his body. It’s just horrible. It’s going to take a lot of time to process," Abbarno said.
In the initial news conference held by Akron police when the body camera footage was released, authorities said Walker’s actions following the pursuit after he left his vehicle caused the officers to perceive he posed a deadly threat in the moment before he was shot.
Abbarno said his firm is going to compare the autopsy findings to those videos.
“What we're going to see is we'll be able to match up the information that we receive from the autopsy report and hopefully match that up with the body cam footage to see what the position of the body was, as various shots were fired, and as various shots struck Jayland. But as, as I stand here, now, we're not able to determine whether that will shed any light on what we've heard the Akron Police Department say.”
Walker’s attorneys said they are working to understand how and why the shooting occurred.
“We're focusing on why such excessive force was used on an unarmed man,” he said.
The investigation
Walker's death is being investigated by Ohio BCI and members of the United Nations International Independent Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in the context of Law Enforcement.
RELATED: United Nations providing investigators to look into Jayland Walker case
The funeral
On Wednesday, a funeral service was held for Walker at the Akron Civic Theater.
Watch more in the player below:
RELATED: Family, friends gather in Akron for Jayland Walker's funeral
The NAACP on Thursday made a direct plea to Attorney General Merrick Garland for the Justice Department to open a federal civil rights investigation into Walker’s death.
RELATED: NAACP calls on Garland to probe killing of Jayland Walker
CLICK HERE to read News 5's continuing coverage of Jayland Walker.
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