Akron community members gathered Sunday to remember 15-year-old Jazmir Tucker who was shot and killed by an Akron police officer on Thanksgiving.
A group that included Tucker's family, friends and other community members met outside of the Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts in Akron's Sherbondy Hill neighborhood, near where he was shot, lighting candles and releasing balloons in his memory.
Emanuel Henderson, Tucker’s middle school basketball coach, said he's devastated by the news.
"I'm a little too emotional even talk about that right now," Henderson said. "It's just, it's just, it's clear as day is messed up because he's a kid. And it is sad. It's sad. I'm heartbroken because as a basketball coach, you don't never want to hear anything bad happening to any of your kids, your students, your players," he said.
Henderson described Tucker as a "kindhearted, good kid, good student, pure talent on the basketball court. One of my favorite players that I ever had in my team."
He added the police need to change their training to avoid such incidents.
“I don't know the full story," he said. "I just feel like the police does need better training overall. I just know a good kid was killed. That's all I know. One of my good kids was killed.”
Akron resident Tia Ray said incidents like these are devastating for the community and undermine any trust between youth and the police.
“This is very heartbreaking because I have a 15-year-old son," she told Ideastream Public Media. "This is his friend. He's never experienced this before. My son is in the mind frame where he don't like the police. He don't trust the police. And I don't want him to think that.”
Ray said police should find ways to interact more frequently with youth in a positive manner to build up trust.
"It's to the point where the police are scared of the youth, and our youth are now scared of the police," she said. "So, something needs to be done there. It has to be some type of community trust. It's dividing us. It really is. And it is getting bad."
The Akron Police Department is expected to release police body camera footage from the shooting this week. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations meanwhile is handling the investigation into the shooting. Its findings will be submitted to the Ohio Attorney General for review and then handed to a Summit County grand jury.
According to the original press release from the Akron Police Department, two officers were parked in their police cruiser at East Avenue and Vernon Odom Blvd. around 11 p.m. Thursday, working on a report from a previous call when they heard gunshots. When they got out of their car to investigate, they encountered a man with a loaded firearm. According to the statement, one of the officers opened fire at the suspect. Despite administering first aid, the statement said they man later died at a nearby hospital.
The department said both officers have been put on paid administrative leave.
In a news release Saturday, Akron Mayor Shammas Malik said of the 15-year-old's death, "Every loss of life is a tragedy, and to lose a young life is heartbreaking." Malik said his thoughts were with the young man's family as well as the officers and their families.
Malik said while he hoped that BCI's independent investigation would provide "a full understanding of the incident," he asked the community to reserve judgment until more is known.
