Charter buses carrying about 100 people with a caravan of several cars in tow took off from Akron just after midnight Tuesday for an early morning trip to Washington, D.C., to march outside of the U.S. Department of Justice. Those on board say they are demanding the federal agency investigate the Akron police and the officers involved in the June 2022 fatal police shooting of Jayland Walker.
"It's time to do a pattern-and-practice-of investigation, not only into the Akron Police Department, but into all of the police departments across the country," said Rev. Ray Greene, the executive director of Freedom BLOC, the Akron-based advocacy organization that organized the bus trip.
"There is evidence of dead bodies... from coast to coast that has been murdered by police departments across the country so we're going down to deliver that message and in solidarity with people from across the country to say, 'Enough is enough,'" Greene said.
Last week, the Freedom BLOC, alongside other civil rights organizations, including Color of Change and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, released a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding that the DOJ open a civil rights investigation into the Akron police officers involved in Walker’s death. Greene said he hoped to hand deliver the letter in Washington.
Greene expects a few hundred people from Akron and others from around the country, including Walker's family who are flying in, to attend the rally in Washington.
Last June, eight Akron police officers fatally shot and killed Walker, 25, after an attempted traffic stop that resulted in a car and subsequent foot chase. An investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation found that Walker had fired a shot during the car chase but was unarmed at the time he was shot by police. The investigation determined that the eight officers fired 94 shots, wounding or grazing Walker 45 times. Walker's killing sparked protests in Akron that lasted days and ended after the city imposed a curfew.
The police shooting has galvanized activists' calls for police reform in the city. In November, voters approved the creation of a police oversight board to track complaints against police. Earlier this year, a grand jury declined to indict the officers involved on criminal charges, but Akron police's internal investigation is ongoing. Walker's family in June filed an excessive force lawsuit against the city.
One of the protesters boarding the buses said it was time police were held accountable for shooting deaths in Akron. Johnson Stephens said he hoped Walker's death would result in the accountability that eluded his family in 2008 when officers were cleared of wrongdoing after fatally shooting his then 42-year-old brother Jeffrey Stephens.
"What they didn't do for my brother, I'm sure they're getting ready to do it for Jayland," said Stephens. "It's time for the justice."
Ramona Benson, of Euclid, said she had never heard of Freedom BLOC until she bought a bus ticket to join the trip Monday.
"I just want justice for Jayland," she said. "Those police officers definitely needed to be indicted, and so we're not going to stop. We're not going to stop until we get justice."
The rally in Washington is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, and the bus is expected to return to Akron late Tuesday night.
