AKRON, Ohio — A cell phone video a woman recorded from her home in Akron is now going viral.
"I think it's just to get everyone's goat around here and they didn't just get the goat they got the herd."
Amanda Bryant recorded the video showing Akron police carrying what she says is a Justice for Jayland Walker poster after officers cut it off a utility pole.
Bryant says there was a disturbance in her neighborhood that brought officers out Monday, but it didn’t have anything to do with the poster.
Her video has now created a social media firestorm, and heartache.
"It wasn't hurting anything so why?” said Amanda Bryant.
Bryant says she grabbed her cell phone when she saw an Akron police officer use a boxcutter to cut down the poster that was on a pole at the corner of McKinley and Hudson Avenues.
"They put it in their car and they left,” said Bryant.
Bryant posted the video to Facebook and her TikTok which generated a lot of views.
"I just thought that I'd bring a little awareness to it, is it a guilty conscience, is it just out of spite?” said Bryant.
Autumn Riddle got wind of the video.
"My heart broke, I cried,” said Riddle. Riddle says her dad, Terry, made the sign and many others just like it.
"From day one, my dad had a mission from day one,” said Autumn Riddle.
Terry Riddle died of lung cancer just before Thanksgiving.
His daughter says he lost a lot of sleep over the deadly shooting of Jayland Walker in June by eight Akron police officers.
"I think just the way that they killed him and had him on the ground, my dad it really bothered him because it wasn't right,” said Autumn Riddle.
Autumn’s dad spent his last months writing the message on bright poster boards and putting them up on poles in neighborhoods around Akron including where Walker was killed.
She says her father didn’t know Walker and didn’t want the recognition.
“He just wanted to do this out of the greatness of his heart just for Jayland,” said Autumn Riddle.
According to the Akron city code, people are prohibited from putting up notices and posters in a public right of way, or to a lamp post or utility pole in a public right of way. But look around Akron, and you’ll see flyers of all sorts on poles.
"Everybody puts like missing dog and yard sale and things like that on these poles all the time and they never come down,” said Bryant.
So, were the officers enforcing the minor misdemeanor and is that a typical assignment?
News 5 went to Akron police headquarters for answers. Police tell us they are aware of the Facebook post and are looking into the matter.
Autumn Riddle says her brother witnessed the same thing last week.
“He saw one being cut down on Archwood and Inman by APD; they were also in a squad car,” she said.
The sign at McKinley and Hudson Avenues has been replaced.
"I have surveillance and I have adjusted my camera on the front to where it babysits the telephone pole,” said Bryant.
Along with filing a complaint with Akron police, Autumn says she will carry on her father’s mission.
"They can take them down just like what they did to my dad and he went right back out and replaced them and I'm going to do that for my dad,” said Autumn Riddle.
Bryant says her TikTok post has nearly 70,000 views. The Facebook and Twitter posts about this are getting hundreds of shares.
Riddle told News 5 she filed a citizen complaint this morning against two unknown officers writing this was the second incident.
News 5 is still waiting for a response to our questions from Akron police.
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