AKRON, Ohio — In less than two weeks, a special grand jury will begin to review evidence in the police-involved shooting death of Jayland Walker.
Ultimately, the grand jury, which is expected to be seated April 10, will decide if Akron police officers will be indicted on criminal charges.
Leaders from the community, organizations and Akron churches are expecting challenging days ahead, and because of that, they have organized a "community conversation" on March 29 at New Hope Baptist Church on S. Hawkins Ave. at 6:30 p.m.
Representatives from the Akron Police Department will also participate.
Topics that will be discussed include how the grand jury works, how APD conducts use of force investigations and how to safely assemble.
"We want to prevent any type of disruption that would promote any type of violence that might destroy any property and we're for peace and want to see a peaceful resolution as it relates to the situation. At the same time, and ultimately, finding justice for Jayland," said Eufrancia Lash from 100 Black Men, one of the sponsors of the event.
The shooting of Walker, 25, led to protests, unrest and some vandalism to downtown businesses in July.
"It's been a tremendous impact on Akron. I think that there's probably not a person in Akron that is not dealing with the trauma of what last July brought us," said Kemp Boyd, the executive director of Love Akron.
On June 27, 2022, Walker was shot more than 40 times by eight Akron officers after a foot and car chase.
Investigators said Walker was unarmed during the shooting, but that he fired a shot from his vehicle less than one minute into the chase. Police said a gun was found in his car.
Former Akron City Prosecutor Gert Wilms, who is now chief of staff for the city of Akron, said the Attorney General's Office will present the case to a Summit County grand jury at the courthouse. The presentation of the evidence is expected to last a week.
Wilms expects that more than 100 Summit County residents will be summoned, but only the nine that are seated will determine if the officers will be indicted.
"This is a probable cause, for lack of a better term, hearing. The community members will determine whether there are reasonable grounds if a crime was committed and if this person committed it," Wilms said. "It's not a one-and-done. They have multiple charges they could consider depending on how it is presented to them."
Lash said he will stress to residents, who choose to protest before or after the grand jury decision, to do so in a peaceful way.
"We always encourage peaceful disobedience. There's a way to go about proving your point and remain peaceful at the same time," Lash said.
Boyd said while many will speculate on what the grand jury will do, he thinks it's important to wait and see what happens and work together to heal wounds in Akron.
"Regardless of whatever the outcome is, it's still gonna cause some hurt and some pain for our city," Boyd said.
Because of the uncertainty of what will happen in the next few weeks, community leaders believe it's important to keep a connection with residents and Walker's family.
"There's still a family here that is still grieving, that is still hurting the loss of a loved one," Boyd said.
The city of Akron is passing out the flyer below that outlines the grand jury process:
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