Several hundred protesters on Sunday marched in Akron, Ohio, after the release of body camera footage that showed police fatally shooting a black man with several dozen rounds of bullets.
As anger rose over the latest police killing of a black man in the US, and authorities appealed for calm, a crowd marched to the city hall carrying banners with slogans such as “Justice for Jayland.”
Jayland Walker, 25, who was killed on Monday after officers tried to stop his car because of a traffic violation, police said.
Photo: AFP
Sunday marked the fourth straight day of protests in the city of 190,000 people.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People president Derrick Johnson denounced the shooting as “murder ... point blank” as the civil rights group led a daytime rally.
“This Black man was killed ... for a possible traffic violation. This doesn’t happen to white people in America,” he wrote in a statement.
Protests continued into the evening, with a hundred-strong crowd still in the streets in front of the justice center, an Agence France-Presse reporter said.
Despite calls from some protesters for calm, tensions mounted as the night wore on. Some protesters set dumpsters alight and broke windows of the snowplows and other heavy equipment authorities had moved near the police department as a barrier. Police in riot gear deployed and fired tear gas at the crowd to push it back.
After initially providing few details of the shooting, Akron authorities on Sunday released two videos: a compilation of body camera footage, body-cam still frames and a voiceover, and another of the complete body-cam footage of the entire chase and shooting.
The voiceover said Walker did not stop and drove off. Police engaged in a car chase and said a shot was fired from Walker’s vehicle.
After being chased for several minutes, Walker got out of his car while it was still moving and fled on foot. Officers tried to subdue him with tasers, but he kept running. Officers finally chased him to a parking lot.
The body-cam footage is too blurry to see clearly what happens, but an initial police statement released after the shooting said Walker behaved in a way that caused officers to believe he posed a “deadly threat.”
All of the officers at the scene opened fire on Walker, shooting multiple times in rapid succession.
“Many will wish to air their grievances in public, and I fully support our residents’ right to peacefully assemble,” Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan told a news conference, saying he was “heartbroken” over the events.
He also said an independent investigation was being conducted.
Police chief Steve Mylett said the medical examiner’s report “indicates over 60 wounds to Mr Walker’s body.”
The eight officers involved in Walker’s death are on paid administrative leave, he said.
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