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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Pelosi in Japan after Taiwan visit sparks massive China military drills

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi meets with officials in Japan during the last leg of her controversial tour to Asia that has drawn Beijing's fury and led to outsized military exercises around Taiwan.

Pelosi reached Japan two days after she became the most senior US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years. (Reuters)

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi is meeting Japanese officials in Tokyo, following a visit to Taiwan that Beijing answered with unprecedented military drills and missile launches.

Pelosi will meet officials on Friday after arriving in Japan following a visit to South Korea on Thursday, where she vowed support to denuclearise North Korea.

In Tokyo, she and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met for discussions on Friday morning. She is also expected to meet her Japanese counterpart Hiroyuki Hosoda, speaker of the more powerful lower house of parliament.

Kishida condemned China's firing of ballistic missiles during military drills around Taiwan, five of which Tokyo believes landed in its exclusive economic zone.

The missile launches are a "serious problem that impacts our national security and the safety of our citizens," Fumio Kishida told reporters after meeting Pelosi for breakfast.

Pelosi's brief trip to Taiwan, where she arrived unannounced with a congressional delegation late on Tuesday and left on Wednesday, marked the highest-level US visit to the island state, which China says is its inseparable province, in 25 years.

It also came as Tokyo, one of Washington's closest allies, has been increasingly alarmed about China's growing might in the Asia-Pacific and the possibility that Beijing could take military action against Taiwan.

"China has chosen to overreact and use the speaker's visit as a pretext to increase provocative military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait," White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.

"The temperature's pretty high," but tensions "can come down very easily by just having the Chinese stop these very aggressive military drills," he added.

Largest Chinese drills in area

Pelosi lauded Taiwan's democracy and pledged American solidarity. Beijing responded with military drills that a state broadcaster said would be the largest by China in the Taiwan Strait, including live firing on the waters and in the airspace around the island.

Five missiles landed in Japan's exclusive economic zone, prompting Tokyo to lodge a strong protest through economic channels.

Japan, whose southernmost islands are closer to Taiwan than Tokyo, has warned that Chinese intimidation of Taiwan is an escalating national security threat.

PM Kishida's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has also pledged to double military spending to 2 percent of GDP.

Tensions between Japan and China ramped up a notch on Thursday when China announced that a meeting between the two nations' foreign ministers, set to take place on the sidelines of an ASEAN meeting in Cambodia, had been called off due to its displeasure with a G7 statement urging Beijing to resolve Taiwan tension peacefully.

Source: Reuters

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