US officials appeal for calm as video shows driver killed by police in hail of gunfire

Campaign draws angry response from Athens

‘We’re all bracing for the community’s response, and the family does not need any more violence’

Bobby DiCello Walker family’s lawyer

Authorities in Ohio have released police bodycam videos showing officers shooting at Jayland Walker, a black motorist killed after running from police during a traffic stop in Akron last week.

The video, which shows a fast police pursuit of Walker’s vehicle, culminates with several officers surrounding Walker, 25, in a parking lot, attempting to use a stun gun on him, and then opening fire.

The family’s lawyer says the video shows police fired 90 times, but police say they have not determined how many shots were fired. An Akron medical examiner determined about 60 wounds on Walker’s body.

Demonstrators gathered for four straight days last week, demanding police accountability. But as the video was released, Akron law enforcement and political officials called for calm.

“The video is heartbreaking, it’s hard to take in,” Mayor Daniel Horrigan said.

Akron police chief Steve Mylett said: “For many reasons it is difficult to watch. At the request of Mr Walker’s family we have blurred Mr Walker’s body in the shooting event.”

Video from the scene also showed a gun on the front seat of Walker’s car, and Mylett said video did appear to show the flash of a gun from Walker’s car during the chase. At times during the pursuit, Walker had 10 police cruisers following him.

Mylett said eight officers were directly involved in the shooting and have been placed on administrative leave. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is conducting the investigation at the request of Akron police.

Mylett said he was “not going to pass judgment” until the investigation was completed.

The police chief thanked Walker’s family for their appeals for calm in a situation, he said, that had a potential for “aggression and violence”.

Horrigan had earlier cancelled the city’s Rib, White and Blue festival for the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

“Independence Day is meant to be a celebration and a time of gathering with friends and family,” the mayor said. “Unfortunately, I feel strongly that this is not the time for a city-led celebration.”

On Saturday, the Walker family’s lawyer, Bobby DiCello, described the bodycam video as “brutal”. DiCello told the Akron Beacon Journal that Walker’s relatives worried that protests over the weekend could turn violent.

“We’re all bracing for the community’s response, and the one message that we have is: the family does not need any more violence,” DiCello said. “The family doesn’t want a violent reaction, they just want peace, dignity and justice for Jayland.”

According to reports, Walker had been involved in a chase with law enforcement less than 24 hours before leading police on a high-speed pursuit.

The deadly confrontation began when officers tried to stop Walker for an equipment violation. A four-anda-half minute chase ensued. When Walker stopped and ran, officers chased him on foot.

Seconds later, two officers initially used stun guns before eight officers opened fire. Mylett later said that stills from the incident appeared to show that Walker had moved his hand toward his waistband, and forward. Soon after, the gunfire from officers erupted.

“Actions by the suspect caused the officers to perceive he posed a deadly threat to them,” police said in a statement. “In response to this threat, officers discharged their firearms, striking the suspect.”

When the medical examiner reached the scene, Walker was found lying on his back in handcuffs. He had been shot in the face, abdomen and upper legs, the report said, adding that a weapon was recovered from his vehicle.

During a press conference yesterday, Mylett said offers had attempted to resuscitate Walker.

DiCello questioned the police narrative that Walker, an Amazon employee before becoming a driver for DoorDash, had fired a gun while driving away from the traffic stop.

“The rear windshield is intact, the front windshield is intact and all side windows are intact,” he said. “There’s no call, there’s no report that we’ve seen and there’s been no mention by the chief in personal discussions with him that a gun was seen outside the car, waving at or being pointed at anyone.” DiCello also said the video showed Walker running with his back to officers when they fired. “We’re getting details that suggest 60 to 80 wounds,” he added.

Ohio congresswoman Shontel Brown, whose district includes Akron, said in a statement: “I am gravely concerned about the killing of a young black man at the hands of police, especially as it happens all too often across this country.”

Brown urged “the city of Akron and its police department to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation to fully inform Mr Walker’s family and our community and ensure accountability”.

As they braced for protests after the release of the bodycam video, authorities strategically positioned snowploughs and other large trucks to serve as street barriers.

The shooting has already sparked several days of protest, and is the third fatal shooting by a police officer in Akron in the past six months. On Saturday, a crowd of more than 100 people gathered outside the city courthouse and chanted: “No justice, no peace, prosecute the police.”

A Turkish effort to lure tourists with a “TurkAegean” promotional campaign – against a backdrop of historic Greek sites and the sound of the bouzouki – has elicited anger and embarrassment in Athens.

With its western shores that straddle the Aegean, Turkey says the time has come to stop associating the region exclusively with Greece. Last December, it lodged a request with the EU’s intellectual property office to trademark the term TurkAegean.

Approval of the application, made public last week, caught Greek politicians off guard. “Some people … quite simply, did not do their job well,” said the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Amid cries of their culture being usurped, Greek officials have gone on the offensive. “Obviously the government will exhaust every legal possibility to deal with this development,” Mitsotakis told startled reporters at the end of last week’s Nato summit in Madrid.

With its ancient Greek name derived from Aegeus, the father of the mythical king Theseus who founded Athens, the Aegean’s Hellenic heritage has rarely been disputed – even if the two Nato rivals have long sparred over issues of territorial sovereignty in the sea.

Against a backdrop of mounting Turkish claims in the region, Greece’s top EU official, the European Commission vice-president, Margaritis Schinas, demanded that the decision be reviewed.

In a tersely worded letter to Thierry Breton, his counterpart in charge of internal markets, Schinas chided the EU body for failing to properly publicise Ankara’s request to use the term in the tourism campaign.

The TurkAegean slogan, predominant in the advertising of what Turkey has also labelled its “coastline of happiness”, has in recent days been rolled out with a vengeance, further riling Greeks.

“The Turkish Aegean is one of the most exquisite regions Türkiye has to offer,” the nation’s culture and tourism minister, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, told the Financial Times, referring to an area with ruins that include ancient Troy and the port city of Ephesus, once viewed by Greeks as the most important trading centre in the Mediterranean.

Advocates of rapprochement point out what TurkAegean makes evident: that from spectacular coastline to music and food, the two countries have more in common than they might like to believe.

But the campaign also follows rising tensions between the historical foes over their opposing claims in the Aegean Sea, mineral exploration in the eastern Mediterranean and wardivided Cyprus. More worryingly, communication through diplomatic channels has all but broken down.

By Friday, hopes of detente in the wake of Madrid’s Nato summit had waned after the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, reiterated he would not be meeting Mitsotakis until he “pulls himself together”.