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In the United States, the videos of the body cameras of the eight policemen who participated in the persecution and subsequent death of Jayland Walker, a 25-year-old black man who died last Monday after the authorities of the city of Akron, were published this Sunday. in Ohio, he was shot dozens of times trying to stop him at a traffic stop.
The videos were published by the Police in a press conference. There those present were able to observe what happened. After the uniformed officers told Walker to stop, he tried to escape by driving his vehicle, but when he was blocked he decided to get out and run. He then began a chase and subsequently the volley of shots.
“There is no doubt that the videos you have just seen are extremely disturbing and will arouse many emotions and feelings. It is shocking and difficult to take in,” Akron Mayor Daniel Horrigan said, calling the event “heartbreaking.”
The number of gunshot wounds found on Walker’s body was 60, but the forensic doctor is still determining which of them are the product of the entry and exit of the same bullet.
“Based on the video, I anticipate that number to be high. Many rounds were fired. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the number at the end of the investigation is consistent with the number that has been circulating in the media. But right now, we just don’t know,” Akron Police Chief Stephen Mylett said.
Mylett reported that “a weapon was recovered from Mr. Walker’s vehicle, but at the time of the shooting, he was unarmed,” also raising the possibility that a shot was fired from inside the young man’s car.
Affirmation to which the family’s lawyer, Bobby Dicello, later responded, saying that the officials are trying to hide the reality and denounced that there is no justification for such a violent death.
“They want to turn him into a masked monster with a gun. I ask, as he’s running away, what’s reasonable? Shoot him down? No, that’s not reasonable,” Dicello said.
The lawyer also invited the citizens to carry out protests but in a peaceful way, expressing that the wish of the relatives was to avoid generating more violence, a call to which the mayor joined. “What we are collectively asking for is peace. It’s the same thing that Mr. Walker and his family are calling and it’s the request of everyone here with me in the community.”
manifestations
The protesters who mobilized through the streets of the city of Akron after the publication of the videos, heeded the family’s call and walked peacefully waving flags of the movement ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Justice for Jayland’.
The protest was organized by a group of pastors from the Baptist Church of the city, where the attendees gathered to leave for the steps of the Justice Center.
Many of the participants asked for life imprisonment for all the uniformed men, some even requested the death penalty. “They shouldn’t be alive, my brother isn’t coming back. One life (in jail) is not enough, we need the death penalty,” said James Crawl who was at the protest.
Crawl assured that Walker was his friend and that “he was one of the most positive people I have ever met in my life. When I heard it on the news, I thought they had the wrong name. It hurts me to think that I can’t talk to him anymore.”
recurring events
The eight officers involved in the shooting have been removed from their charges pending the completion of the investigation.
This incident adds to the list of murders of men and women of African descent by the US Police, which according to the black community are carried out with racist and unjustified motives.
One of the most shocking cases is that of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, who suffocated to death from the pressure that an officer put on his neck with his knee while he was lying on the ground. They were some images that went around the world and generated demonstrations to denounce police brutality.
On May 25, within the framework of the second anniversary of Floyd’s death, President Joe Biden promulgated an order to try to stop police abuses and in which greater control of the procedures and surveillance of the agents is established, in addition, It also aims to limit the use of weapons and force to occasions when it is strictly necessary.
With EFE, Reuters and AFP
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