AKRON, Ohio — A new United Nations group plans to investigate last month’s police shooting death of Jayland Walker, the law firm representing Walker’s family said Wednesday.
The 25-year-old Black man was killed in Akron, Ohio after police shot him about 60 times following a car and foot chase on June 27. Hundreds mourned his death during his funeral service Wednesday, which was declared a citywide day of mourning after days of protests over his death.
The U.N. group, named the International Independent Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement, recently reached out to the DiCello Levitt Gutzler law firm to say it planned to look into Walker’s death, said lawyer Bobby DiCello.
The U.N. group will appoint independent investigators to look into Walker’s death, DiCello said, after the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation concludes its inquiry into the shooting. The group formed after George Floyd’s death in 2020.
After the U.N. investigation, the group will make recommendations to federal and state governments, according to DiCello.
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DiCello, along with several others, spoke at a news conference following visitation and funeral services for Walker at the Akron Civic Theatre. The lawyer said there is no need for city officials to wait to make policy changes.
“One of the most important changes that can be implemented now, that we are calling upon the city to take care of immediately, is the implementation of dashcams,” he said. “A very simple and important change that would have led clarity to this situation and to countless situations where Black Americans have been arrested and stopped at traffic stops.”
Police Chief Stephen Mylett has said Akron police’s traffic stop and chase policies will remain in place for now, along with encrypted police radio transmissions.
DiCello said he and the Walker family do not know the names of the eight officers who shot Jayland Walker, striking him as many as 60 times.
Roddray Walker, Jayland Walker’s cousin, said he didn’t want to have to explain the death to his daughters, ages 4 and 6. “This is the second cousin I lost to police brutality,” Roddray Walker said.
He said people should be “mentally enraged” while focused on nonviolent acts.
“Look to the church,” Roddray Walker, said.
