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Police video shows eight Ohio officers shooting unarmed black man dozens of times

2022-07-03T20:10:09.210Z


Jayland Walker, 25, died last Monday while trying to escape from the authorities, who gave him a stop for a traffic violation in the town of Akron


A traffic violation ended last Monday with the death of Jayland Walker, a 25-year-old black man who was unarmed.

Eight police officers shot him up to 90 times in the town of Akron (Ohio).

After several days of protests in the city, the local police have been forced to release this Sunday during a press conference the recordings of the body cameras that the agents involved are obliged to carry, according to US law.

The autopsy found 60 gunshot wounds on Walker's body.

It is not yet clear if he received 60 shots, since that number could result from adding the entry and exit holes of the projectiles.

Police stopped Walker after midnight.

He tried to get away at the wheel, first, and, being cornered, he ran out of the car.

According to the official version, the agents present believed that he was armed.

The boy had a gun in the car, but he was not carrying it when he was struck down in the street.

In the video released this Sunday, you can see how the policemen run after the young man, until the image freezes and that is when a terrifying salvo of dozens of shots is heard.

Walker joins the list of African-American men killed by security forces in recent years: from Trayvon Martin, whose murder at the hands of a neighborhood watchman a decade ago lit the fuse of the Black Lives Matter movement, to George Floyd , who died in 2020 asphyxiated by an agent in Minnesota.

That tragedy introduced into the national debate the need to review police protocols regarding minorities.

The reaction to his death has ignited protests in the city, and has caused the cancellation of the July 4 party, which this Monday paralyzes the entire country.

All eight officers involved in the shooting have been suspended from duty.

Akron authorities prepare for more citizen protests.

It all happened last Monday around 12:30.

The police stopped the car in which Walker was traveling, who refused to stop the vehicle.

According to the agents, the boy shot from inside the car once, although the family denies that point.

What is clear is that when he got out of the car and started running, he was not carrying that gun.

"The manner in which the suspect behaved made officers fear that he was a deadly threat to them," said the police department of this industrial Midwestern city of just over 200,000 people.

Walker died in the middle of the road.

His family's lawyer, Bobby DiCello, has stated that the young man had "injuries to all parts of his body."

The police have not yet published details on the number of shots fired (about 90, according to the family).

Nor, the names of the agents involved.

On May 25, Joe Biden signed a presidential order to mark the second anniversary of the death of George Floyd.

That death was the spark that ignited a wave of protests throughout the country.

The case also became the yardstick for all stories of police abuse involving, as is the case, a black person involved.

The order was intended, precisely, to prevent these police abuses with a reform of some procedures and greater control and surveillance of agents who commit excesses.

The idea is to limit the use of weapons and force to what is really necessary.

In the absence of what the investigators conclude, everything indicates that last Monday in Akron the police did not comply with that order.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-07-03

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