COLUMBUS, Ohio — Seven months after Jayland Walker's fatal shooting by officers of the Akron Police Department, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI) is continuing its review of the case.
We may now have some clarity as to when that investigation will be complete.
In an email to 3News, the office of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who oversees the BCI, says "a good estimate" of when the case will go before a Summit County Grand Jury would be April of this year.
Yost's office adds that a typical investigation of an officer-involved critical incident takes an average of 400 investigative hours. The Walker case has needed over 1,100 hours so far, which is due in large part to the number of multiple camera angles. Investigators are seeking to sync all of the cameras to get every available perspective.
"The investigation will be objective, professional, and independent," Yost pledged during a message following the shooting. "There are many questions about what happened. Was the force necessary? What led police to shoot a young man so many times? What could have been done to prevent this in the first place?"
The shooting of Jayland Walker happened in the overnight hours of June 27 amid a chase. Akron police say Walker had fired a shot at one point during the vehicle pursuit, but was unarmed at the time officers opened fire when the chase was continued on foot. A gun was later found in Walker's vehicle, according to police.
The Summit County Medical Examiner determined that there were 46 graze/entrance wounds to Walker's body. The toxicology screening was negative for drugs and alcohol. Roughly 90 shots were fired by the officers.
After the shooting, eight members of the Akron Police Department were placed on paid administrative leave. On October 11, the officers were brought back in "an administrative capacity" due to a shortage of officers in the department.
The personnel files of the officers, which were heavily redacted, were obtained by 3News after a public records request in July. Four of the eight officers have military backgrounds, while three have Bachelor's degrees. None of the eight officers had previously faced work-related discipline.