New police body camera footage following Jayland Walker's death sparks outrage from family

Jayland Walker's family is outraged, according to the family's attorneys, after newly released body camera footage of Walker's death shows the moments following the fatal police shooting.

"After they shoot and end the life of Pam Walker's son, they turn off their mics. They turn off their cameras. What did they say? What did they do?" Walker family attorney Bobby DiCello said at a press conference on Tuesday. "They'll come up with a reason why they could turn off the cameras. But probe, ask those questions. In the face of this insult, we're still here."

According to the body camera footage acquired by the Akron Beacon Journal and reviewed by ABC News, an officer can be heard yelling, "Did anyone see the gun?" as officers continued to point their lights on Walker's body on the ground. Other officers chime in, saying they "can't see it," or "don't know" where the gun is.

Police approach Walker as he's on the ground, examining the body and calling for medical attention, according to the footage.

Jayland Walker is pictured in an undated family photo. Walker Family

One officer orders all the officers who shot at Walker to separate themselves from the scene. Several officers then tell each other to "go blue," prompting officers to shut off the audio being recorded from the officers' body cameras, the footage showed.

The officers can be seen standing in a circle, but their discussion cannot be heard because the audio was shut off, according to the footage.

The Akron Police Department did not respond to ABC News' request for comment.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation's probe into the incident is ongoing.

"Why didn't we hear that microphones were turned off? ... This was all known. This was all known to the people who put on that press conference," Ken Abbarno, a family attorney for the Walkers, said at the press conference. "How unfair is that? How unfair is that to you? How unfair is that to the Walker family?"

The attorneys also called for a public apology to the family from the department.

"Do you guys understand that every time I come up, and our team gathers, [Walker's mother] Pam goes through a living nightmare?" DiCello said.

Activists called for civil disobedience in the wake of the fatal police incident, asking for the Akron Police Department to end violence against protestors, as well as implement an independent citizen oversight board for the police.

Walker was unarmed when police fatally shot him on June 27 after a traffic stop turned into a pursuit. He was running away when eight officers opened fire on him, body camera footage released by the city showed.

Officials said they attempted to pull Walker over for a traffic and equipment violations with his car. He allegedly refused to stop, which set off a chase that ended in his death.

In this July 8, 2022, file photo, a demonstrator holds a sign during a vigil in honor of Jayland Walker in Akron, Ohio. Walker was shot and killed by members of the Akron Police Department on July 3, 2022. Angelo Merendino/Getty Images, FILE

Officials said a flash of light seen in body camera footage appeared to be the muzzle flash of a gun coming from the driver's side of Walker's car.

In a second body camera video, officers are heard radioing that a shot was being fired from Walker's car. The footage shows an officer following Walker's Buick off Route 8 and continuing the pursuit on side streets.

At one point, Walker slowed down and jumped out of the passenger side door before it came to a complete stop, according to the footage. As Walker ran away from police, several officers simultaneously fired at him, fatally shooting him.

Walker had 46 gunshot wounds to his body, a July autopsy report revealed.

A gun was later recovered inside the car, but Walker was unarmed when he was shot.

Akron Police Chief Steve Mylett has said he is reserving further comment and judgment on the incident until the Ohio Bureau of Investigation completes its probe.

In this July 2, 2022, file photo, Akron police officers watch a group protesting the death of Jayland Walker outside the Harold K. Stubbs Justice Center, in Akron, Ohio.

Jeff Lange/Beacon Journal via USA Today Network, FILE

In an earlier statement, Akron police officials said, the "actions by the suspect caused the officers to perceive he posed a deadly threat to them. In response to this threat, officers discharged their firearms, striking the suspect."

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WI cricket - Fabian Allen ready to return for West Indies after 'difficult time' for him and family

Fabian Allen has made himself available for international selection again ahead of the T20 World Cup, six months since his last appearance in a West Indies shirt.

Allen, the left-arm spin-bowling allrounder, declined a retainer contract with Cricket West Indies earlier this year and has been absent for "personal reasons" throughout West Indies' home season.

He revealed in a statement that he had lost his father to cancer earlier this year, thanking CWI for their support throughout "a very difficult time for me and my family", and confirmed that he is available for international selection.

"I'd like to thank my family, friends and fans for their support over the past four months," Allen said. "As some of you may know, I recently lost my father to cancer this year and it has been a very difficult time for me and my family. He was my biggest fan and I'm happy he got [to] see me live my dream as a professional cricketer. I will continue to make him proud.

"As a professional athlete you learn to quickly put things behind you and move forward but it has been particularly difficult for me over the past couple [of] months. I'm very grateful to the Mumbai Indians franchise for allowing me the time to handle my personal arrangements and being flexible with my schedule.

"After laying my dad to rest I immediately had to turn my focus to the IPL. While it kept me busy and focused, I knew after the tournament was completed, I needed to take some time away from the game."

Allen was the leading run-scorer in the inaugural season of the 6ixty last week and he will represent Jamaica Tallawahs at the CPL, where he will hope to push for a place in West Indies' T20 World Cup squad.

"Cricket West Indies has been supportive throughout the entire process and I really want to thank Johnny Grave [chief executive] and Jimmy Adams [director of cricket] for their consideration. I want to use this opportunity to make it clear, I'll always want to represent my country and the West Indies.

"Even though I did not necessarily make it clear why I made myself unavailable for selection during the recent summer schedule, it was important for me to finish my grieving process and spend some time with my family.

"Most importantly, I've been getting myself physically and mentally ready for the CPL and hopefully the T20 World Cup (if selected) later this year. The best of Fabian Allen is yet to come. I know I have the ability to be one of the best batting allrounders in the world and I look forward to showcasing it for all to see."

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US firefighter rushes to douse house fire, finds 10 victims were his family

Seven adults and three children die after fire engulfs a house in eastern Pennsylvania state, officials say, with a horrified firefighter Harold Baker arriving at the site to discover charred victims were his family.

"I tried to get in as fast as I can," firefighter Harold Baker tells media, saying he attempted to enter the house multiple times before his colleagues pulled him away. (AP)

Ten people, including seven adults and three children, have been killed after a fire tore through a house and a horrified firefighter who arrived to battle the blaze only to discover that the victims were his family, authorities said.

A criminal investigation into the fire is under way, authorities said on Friday. The children who died in the fire were ages 5, 6 and 7, Pennsylvania State Police said in a news release. 

The other victims ranged in age from 19 to 79.

Nescopeck Volunteer Fire Co. firefighter Harold Baker told the Citizens' Voice newspaper of Wilkes-Barre that the 10 victims included his son, daughter, father-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, three grandchildren and two other relatives.

The fire in Nescopeck was reported around 2:30 am [local time]. One person was found dead inside the single-family home shortly after emergency responders arrived, while two other victims were found later in the morning.

Three adults escaped the blaze.

"The residence was completely destroyed by the fire" and K9 units were deployed to help in the search for victims, police said.

'They’re all dead'

Baker said that the address initially given for the call was a neighbouring home, but that he realised it was his family's residence as the fire truck approached.

"When we turned the corner up here on Dewey (Street) I knew right away what house it was just by looking down the street," Baker told the Citizens' Voice. "I was on the first engine, and when we pulled up, the whole place was fully involved. We tried to get into them."

Neighbours reported hearing a loud popping sound or explosion before seeing the front porch of the home rapidly consumed by flames. Some also reported hearing a young man screaming in front of the home, "They’re all dead."

Baker, who was relieved of his firefighting duties because of his relationship with the victims, said 14 people were living in the home. One of them was out delivering newspapers, and three others escaped, he said.

"I tried to get in as fast as I can," he told the newspaper, saying he attempted to enter multiple times before his colleagues pulled him away.

“It’s a complex criminal investigation with multiple fatalities,” Pennsylvania officials said.

Source: AFP

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PM Shahbaz visits Lieutenant Colonel Laiq Baig Shaheed's family

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif offering Fatiha for Colonel Laiq Baig Mirza Shaheed. — APP

QUETTA: Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Monday visited the residence of Lieutenant Colonel Laiq Baig Mirza, a high-ranking official of the Pakistan Army who embraced martyrdom last month.

During his visit, PM Shahbaz met with the martyr’s family and paid tribute to his service to the nation.

“No nation can ever be grateful enough to its martyrs for their supreme sacrifice of life,” tweeted the premier.

In his tweet, PM Shahbaz further wrote that the sacrifices of true patriots like him ensure that anti-Pakistan forces will never succeed.

Lieutenant Colonel Mirza was martyred after terrorists abducted and shot him dead last month, a statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.

According to the military's media wing, on the night of July 12/13 a group of 10-12 terrorists abducted Lt Col Laiq Shaheed, who was serving in DHA Quetta, along with his cousin Umer Javed near Warchoom, Ziarat, as they were returning to Quetta after visiting Quaid-e-Azam's residency.

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U.S. Teacher’s Letters Censored in Russian Prison, Family Says

An American teacher jailed on drug charges in Russia is being kept from communicating to his family freely, his family told CNN on Wednesday.

Marc Fogel, 61, was last month found guilty of large-scale drug acquisition, manufacture, smuggling and possession and sentenced to 14 years in a maximum-security penal colony. Fogel’s family says he was carrying cannabis for medical reasons to treat chronic back pain.

He was detained passing through customs at a Moscow airport in August 2021, when 11 grams of marijuana and eight grams of hash oil was reportedly found in his luggage.

Fogel’s sister Anne Fogel said no one has heard his voice since his detention and only received Russian-language letters translated by his cell mates.

“Everything goes through the censors. It’s harrowing,” she told CNN.

“He says what he wants in English, someone translates for him, one of his cellmates, and depending on how good their English is is how accurate of a picture we get of what is happening,” Fogel added.

“It’s very convoluted and it’s incredibly worrisome because we can’t really have an honest conversation.”

Fogel’s family is now pushing the U.S. State Department to declare him wrongfully detained, a designation applied to basketball star Brittney Griner, who is on trial on similar drug charges in Moscow.

“We are always weighing those developments against the criteria to determine whether an American is wrongfully held or not,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said, adding that the agency is continuing to learn more about the circumstances of his detention.

Fogel had worked at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow until May 2021, acccording to the Russian authorities. He then apparently took up a teaching job at the Anglo-American School of Moscow.

“This is a person who has served the American diplomatic community in schools all over the world for well over the majority of his career,” Anne Fogel told CNN. “I need my president and first lady to stand up for him. He needs to come home.”

Fogel is among several Americans currently held in Russian prisons amid bilateral tensions, with Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan most prominent among them.

Another ex-Marine, Trevor Reed, was in April exchanged for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was convicted in the U.S. on drug smuggling charges.

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Alabama gov: Execution set despite wishes of victim's family

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Alabama's governor said Wednesday that she has decided the state will proceed later this week with a plan to execute a man convicted of killing his former girlfriend decades ago, overriding a plea from the victim's family to spare the man's life.

Gov. Kay Ivey told reporters she won't call off the scheduled lethal injection of Joe Nathan James Jr. at a south Alabama prison on Thursday evening. The inmate was convicted and sentenced to die for the 1994 shooting death of 26-year-old Faith Hall, in Birmingham.

Hall’s daughters, who were just 3 and 6 when their mother was killed, had urged along with Hall's brother that officials change the sentence to life in prison without parole. But Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall urged Ivey to let execution plans proceed and ensure “justice is done."

In making public her decision Wednesday morning, Ivey said, “My staff and I have researched all the records and all the facts and there’s no reason to change the procedure or modify the outcome. The execution will go forward.”

Prosecutors said James briefly dated Hall, but that he had become obsessed after she ended their relationship, stalking and harassing her for months before killing her. On Aug. 15, 1994, he forced his way inside an apartment, pulled a gun from his waistband and shot her three times, they said.

In the weeks leading up to the scheduled execution date, Hall's daughters and brother had said they would rather James serve a life sentence in prison rather than be put to death.

“I know it may sound crazy. Like, you really want this man to live? But ... I just feel like we can’t play God. We can’t take a life. And it’s not going to bring my mom back,” Terryln Hall had told The Associated Press in a recent telephone interview.

State Rep. Juandalynn Givan, who was a friend of Hall's, sent a letter to the governor relaying the family’s request.

“They are simply saying our wish as the family is for him to die in the penal system of the Alabama correctional facility. That's how we want him to suffer and we want to see that suffering for the rest of our lives,” Givan said Wednesday.

Givan said the case was unusual in that the victim's family had asked for clemency. Though James “brutally and senselessly killed” the mother of two simply because she rejected him, Givan said the family's wishes should carry weight.

“This is a tough one,” said Givan, who remembered Hall as a kind and devoted mother.

“She was just the sweetest person you ever wanted to meet,” Givan said.

Meanwhile, James has acted as his own attorney in a bid to halt Thursday's execution procedure, filing handwritten lawsuits and requests for a stay.

He has claimed his lawyers were ineffective and that prison officials did not explain what was at stake when it gave inmates a form in which they could select nitrogen hypoxia as their preferred execution method. Alabama has approved nitrogen hypoxia as an execution means but hasn't developed a system for its use or scheduled any executions by that method.

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Blinken meets with family of slain Al Jazeera journalist

ANKARA 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Tuesday with the family of Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran journalist who was shot dead in May while covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the Al Jazeera news outlet.

"Today I met with the family of slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, whose fearless journalism earned her the respect of audiences around the world. I expressed my deepest condolences and commitment to pursue accountability for her tragic killing," Blinken said on Twitter.

He also shared pictures of the meeting.

Abu Akleh, a 51-year-old Palestinian-American, was shot dead on May 11 while covering an Israeli military raid near the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

While Palestinian officials and Al Jazeera accused Israel of killing the reporter, Tel Aviv denied any responsibility.

Earlier in July, the family had harshly criticized the results of an investigation where the US avoided remarks that held Israel responsible for her killing.

"We, the family of Shireen Abu Akleh, write to express our grief, outrage and sense of betrayal concerning your administration’s abject response to the extrajudicial killing of our sister and aunt by Israeli forces on May 11, 2022, while on assignment in the occupied Palestinian city of Jenin in the West Bank," family members said in a long letter to US President Joe Biden.

It underlined that the journalist, who was also a US citizen, was killed by an Israeli-fired bullet to the head, despite wearing a protective helmet and a blue bulletproof vest that was marked "press.”

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Slain Al Jazeera journalist's family in US seeking independent probe

The family said it was calling for the United States to launch its own "thorough, credible independent and transparent investigation" into Abu Akleh's murder.

Shireen Abu Akleh, an Al Jazeera journalist and a prominent Palestinian reporter, was killed on May 11 as she covered an Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank. (AP)

The family of slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh has pressed the United States for an independent probe and accountability from Israel on a visit to Washington at the invitation of Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"For far too long, the United States has enabled Israel to kill with impunity by providing weapons, immunity, and diplomatic cover," Shireen's brother Tony Abu Akleh and her niece and nephew said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Impunity leads to repetition. We are here to do our part to ensure that this cycle ends," they said.

"If we allow Shireen's killing to be swept under the rug, we send a message that the lives of US citizens abroad don't matter, that the lives of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation don't matter, and that the most courageous journalists in the world, those who cover the human impact of armed conflict and violence, are expendable."

READ MORE: How Shireen Abu Akleh inspired a generation of female reporters

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB0qwbo8e8M[/embed]

Criticising Israel for using force

Shireen Abu Akleh, an Al Jazeera journalist and a prominent Palestinian reporter, was killed on May 11 as she covered an Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank.

The United States on July 4 released a statement saying she was likely shot by Israeli fire but that there was no evidence her killing was intentional and that the bullet was too damaged for a conclusive finding.

The statement outraged Abu Akleh's family and Palestinian leaders who say that the United States is not seeking accountability from Israel over the death of the journalist, who also held US citizenship.

Israel says it is still probing her death and rejects suggestions it targeted a journalist.

Abu Akleh's family unsuccessfully sought to meet President Joe Biden when he visited Israel and the occupied West Bank earlier this month.

Blinken, however, invited the family to visit Washington, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said during the trip.

Blinken had spoken earlier to her family by phone and publicly criticised Israel for using force at her funeral, when police grabbed Palestinian flags and pallbearers struggled not to drop her casket.

READ MORE: Relatives of Abu Akleh reject Israeli probe into funeral violence

Source: AFP

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