The City of Akron announced on Monday morning that its settlement with the family of Jayland Walker is for $4,850,000, which will be paid in a series of four installments over the next four years. Later in the day, the mayor told reporters the settlement will come from taxpayer dollars.
The settlement was announced earlier this month, but details weren't revealed until Monday.
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"We all agree: Akron should be a place where everyone is safe. We all know there are important problems to address in our community and it is through our continued commitment, courage, and conversations we will move our city forward, together," Mayor Shammas Malik said in a statement.
Jayland Walker's death
On the night of June 27, 2022, Walker was shot multiple times by eight Akron police after a traffic stop turned into a pursuit and a foot chase that ended in a parking lot near Firestone Park.
Authorities said it all started when two officers tried to stop a car on Tallmadge Avenue in Akron’s North Hill neighborhood. Within a few seconds of being on Route 8, officers said a firearm was discharged from Walker’s vehicle. Officers pursued him down Route 8 and I-77, where he exited into the Firestone Park Area before jumping out and fleeing on foot, heading north through a grassy area into a parking lot at Bridgestone.
During a press conference with Akron police where the department released body camera footage of the moments leading up to Walker's death, authorities showed reporters a narrated video of specific moments during the pursuit and shooting, including, near the start of the pursuit, what looks like a muzzle flash captured on an ODOT camera that police say occurred while what sounds like a gunshot was captured on body-cam.
When Walker's vehicle slowed down, he jumped out of the passenger side door wearing a ski mask and fled from police. It was during this foot chase that Walker's movements "caused the officers to perceive he posed a deadly threat to them," and they opened fire in response, striking him.
The entire incident lasted just minutes.
RELATED: Timeline: Jayland Walker deadly shooting
Walker's body had 46 bullet entrance and graze wounds, according to an autopsy by Summit County Medical Examiner's Office. Specific injuries Walker 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.
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 the medical examiner explained that was 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.
