A new United Nations group plans to investigate the Akron police shooting death last month of Jayland Walker, the law firm representing Walker’s family said Wednesday.
The U.N. group, formed in 2021, recently reached out to the law firm to say it planned to look into Walker’s death, said Bobby DiCello of law firm DiCello Levitt Gutzler.
The U.N. group, which goes by the long name of International Independent Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement, won’t start until after the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation concludes its inquiry into the shooting, DiCello said.
Independent U.N. investigation
The U.N. group will appoint independent investigators to look into Walker’s death on June 27, he said. The group formed after the George Floyd death in 2020, he said.
The group will then make recommendations to the federal and state governments, he said
DiCello and others talked in a news conference held shortly after visitation and funeral services for Walker concluded at the Akron Civic Theatre. The news conference took place in the Knight Stage, which is next to the South Main Street theater in downtown Akron. Among the things they talked about was what they see as a need to reframe the narrative about Walker’s shooting death, to focus it on the police.
A public apology and dashcams
DiCello asked for a public apology from city officials over Walker’s death and the immediate implementation of new police policies.
“Where is the public apology?” DiCello asked. “We need a public apology. We are going to ask to say that they do as they say with their kind words privately. With their gestures here today, we need more from city leadership. And we need that dialogue to start immediately.”
DiCello 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.”
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.
Focus on nonviolent acts
Among the speakers was Roddray Walker, a first cousin to Jayland Walker.
He spoke emotionally about his cousin’s death and that 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,” Walker said.
“I don’t know what to do. I don’t know who to turn to. We need changes. We need changes,” he said.
Walker said people should be “mentally enraged” while focused on nonviolent acts.
“Look to the church,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Law firm: U.N. group to investigate Jayland Walker shooting in Akron
