Jayland Walker described as quiet, kind at funeral
Hundreds of people gathered at a theater in Akron, Ohio, on Wednesday to commemorate the life of Jayland Walker, a 25-year-old Black man killed in a hail of police gunfire last month.
Walker was remembered by family and friends as a shy, kind, thoughtful man with a quiet sense of humor.
There were also calls from those who spoke at the funeral about the need for justice for Walker and other Black men and women killed by police.
“We thank you, God, that Jayland's life has touched so many people around the world,” said the Rev. Robert DeJournett of Akron's St. Ashworth Temple Church of God in Christ.
“I'm believing that this is gonna be the last time that we have to do this. But God, we're going to continue to push and push and push until a change is gonna come.”
Mourners, some wearing “Black Lives Matter” and “Zero Threat, Zero Violence, Justice for Jayland” T-shirts, passed by Walker's casket before the funeral.
“When I think about Jayland, I think about someone who had the biggest heart,” said Robin Elerick, a cousin of Walker's who spoke at the service.
Bishop Timothy Clarke, of the First Church of God in Columbus, preached about how Walker's death, and the deaths of other men and women, cannot be normalized.
“We must not try to act as if this is all right,” Clarke said. “This is not all right. There's nothing right about this. We should not be here, and Jayland should not be in that box.”
An attorney for Walker's family, Bobby DiCello, said during a news conference following the funeral that the United Nations Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement has committed to examine Walker's death.
Walker was killed June 27 at the end of a vehicle and foot chase that followed an attempted traffic stop. He wasn't armed when he was shot, but authorities said Walker had fired a shot from his car 40 seconds into the vehicle chase. Police body camera footage released by the city July 3 shows Walker wearing a ski mask, jumping out the front passenger door of his still-moving car and then running into a parking lot.
That blurry footage does not clearly show what authorities say was a threatening gesture before he was shot by eight officers, seven of whom are White and one who is a Black person.
Investigators haven't confirmed how many rounds were fired or how many times he was shot. The Summit County medical examiner's office said it found over 60 wounds on Walker's body but hasn't said how many were entrance and exit wounds.
Akron police released a photo that showed an unloaded handgun, an ammunition magazine and what appeared to be a wedding ring on the driver's seat of Walker's car.