AKRON, Ohio — It's been 46 days since Akron Police took the life of 15-year-old Jazmir Tucker.
According to the Akron Police Department, a pair of patrol officers were parked in their marked cruiser at East Avenue and Vernon Odom Boulevard on Thanksgiving night when they heard gunshots nearby and exited their patrol car.
Body camera shows a five-year veteran officer running towards the outside of Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts, where they encountered Tucker and fatally shot him.
That body camera footage provided on Dec. 5 poses many questions and outages among residents.
RELATED: 'Deeply troubling': Body camera footage released in deadly police shooting of Akron teen
“Where was Jayland Walker, Jazmir Tucker, and countless other victims [when it came to] innocent until proven guilty? They were shot before they even made it to handcuffs, let alone a courtroom and a judge or jury,” William Reynolds voiced at Monday’s Akron City Council meeting. “An injury to one is an injury to all. The ongoing injustice to black men is injustice to all of us.”
In a last-minute addition to Monday night’s Akron City Council meeting, a new Resolution “formally recognizing” Tucker’s death popped up.
The legislation claims the officer accused of killing Tucker has been involved in a previous fatal shooting. It also states Fields failed to activate his body-worn camera, for which he was previously corrected and counseled, making it his second time doing so.
The Resolution, drafted by Akron Councilman-At-Large Eric Garrett Sr., says, “City Council recognizes the pain, suffering, and grief of the family of Jazmir Tucker.”
This new piece of legislation further urges the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the City Administration to “act as expeditiously as possible in investigating the incidents surrounding Jazmir’s death.” Additionally, it’s urging the City Administration to conduct a comprehensive review of police use of force policies.
The Resolution is declared an emergency measure.
“The mayor has handled this situation poorly. I don't think you put the city at any risk by contacting a family where they lost a child from a person who was working for the city. I don't think anybody would argue that you're admitting fault if you just come out and show some sympathy, some empathy,” Dr. Richard Thomas Montgomery II stated.
Akron Mayor Shammas Malik sat down with me last week to talk about how the city plans to move forward after a second high-profile police shooting in two years, which is where part two of what's next comes in.
RELATED: Akron mayor wants to hire outside firms to study city's use of force policy
"We want to come in and really do this deep dive into use of force. Let's look at our policy compared to other community's best practices. Let's also look at our practices, our training, our culture, our police and community interactions. What can we be doing better? How can we make deadly incidents less likely?," Malik asked.
He is proposing the hiring, without an open bid, of two firms to study Akron’s Use of Force policy.
The two firms he wants to hire are Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and 21CP Solutions. One is law, and the other is consultation.
“I think it's problematic because the mayor has a responsibility to be transparent to the public. This looks like some good old fashioned good old boy cronyism,” Montgomery said on Monday. “I think that's one, anti-democratic and two, it looks fairly suspicious on how you're spending taxpayer money.”
The hiring of these two firms would cost Akron taxpayers at least $650,000.
Montgomery II said if there was an open bidding process, he’d be more susceptible to the idea because it would give local firms a chance to make a difference in their own city.
Regardless of local or out-of-state, though, Montgomery II doesn’t think such a study would make a difference.
An organizational assessment of the Akron Police Department in February of 2011 does include recommendations regarding Use of Force. It was done by the Police Executive Research Forum in Washington, D.C.
Because a study was run before and Montgomery II hasn’t seen a change, he said conducting another study would be a waste of the city's time and money.
“The people in leadership respond by saying, ‘We hear you. We're going to do something.’ And then they come up with a set of binders where they say, ‘Here's what we should do to improve it.’ Then, you find those binders collecting dust somewhere,” he added.
The third and final reading of the Mayor’s proposed ordinance to hire outside firms was scheduled to happen Monday night, but it will now be discussed at the next meeting on January 27. Neither was the Resolution about Tucker discussed or voted on. It’ll go to the Rules Committee for deliberation.
“Why isn't [Shammas Malik] here? He wasn't here last week. Why do you have a mayor who doesn't show up to city council meetings? That demonstrates how much he cares about what's going on, how accessible he is to people,” Montgomery II said. “I'm going to give the city time to do their investigation, BCI to do their investigation. I don't believe that having a number of organizations outside of Ohio come in and tell us what we all saw on camera is going to change anything. They delayed giving [Tucker] any first aid. And they treated him like an animal.”
The Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office plans to release Tucker’s autopsy findings Wednesday morning.
We’ll continue to follow through.
