On June 27, 25-year-old Jayland Walker was killed after sustaining 60 gunshot wounds in Akron, Ohio. Local authorities report that Walker died following a high-speed chase, where the tragic moments of the incident are caught via footage.
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The Moments Leading Up to Jayland’s Passing
Jayland’s sister, Jada Walker, spoke with Good Morning America on July 6th. She said she is yet to watch the body camera footage of his death.
“I just can’t see myself watching somebody be gunned down or even running from the police…Lately just even hearing sirens or anything, it’s like a trigger to me,” Jada lamented.
According to local police, the events leading up to Jayland’s murder started around 12:30 in the morning as police tried to stop him for traffic violations.
Close to 40 seconds after this, a muzzle flash can be seen, allegedly from inside Walker’s car, which police body cameras have since captured.
While both a gun and a shell casing were found near the crime scene, there has been no official word that it came from his weapon.
However, he was stated to be unarmed around the time he died.
In addition, the eight officers reporting on the job used tasers to apprehend him before this but were unsuccessful in subduing him.
According to Akron police chief Stephen Mylett, police fired at Walker because they believed he was “moving into a firing position.”
Who Was Jayland?
In the Akron Beacon Journal, friends and faculty had nothing but good words to say about the late 25-year-old.
Robert Hubbard, Walker’s wrestling coach for four years at Buchtel High School, described him as “one of the sweetest, most mannerable kids I’ve ever had.” Hubbard described him as a hard worker who always followed his instructions; in his senior year, Walker became City Series champ of his weight class at 160 pounds.
George Johnson, a friend and former teammate remembers him as a funny guy. “I wanted him to be a comedian. That’s not what he wanted to do. He wanted to be a wrestler, like in the WWE,” Johnson remarked.
Summer Weighs In
Not that anyone was asking for it, but Summer Walker took to her Instagram page, offering her two cents on the recent surge in police brutality back in April 2021. The saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” is applicable in this case.
Following the tragic death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, also at a traffic stop, Walker posted a captionless photo to her page of a woman holding up a protest sign that reads, “Nobody told your scary ass to be a cop.”