A Summit County grand jury declined to indict the Akron police officer who fatally shot 15-year-old Jazmir Tucker last November, according to a press release Thursday from Mayor Shammas Malik's office.
Two officers initially approached Tucker on Nov. 28, 2024, after hearing gunshots while working on a report from a previous call at East Avenue and Vernon Odom Boulevard, according to the initial police report. Body cam footage from the incident starts with officers running toward Tucker with weapons drawn. One officer, Davon Fields, fired at him with an AR-15 style rifle. Tucker is not seen in the video until he is being handcuffed. Police later found a handgun in Tucker's zipped coat pocket. The autopsy report showed Tucker was fatally shot two times in the back and was also shot in the arm.
"They found a gun zipped in his pocket. He wasn't shooting at that officer," Akron NAACP President Judi Hill said. "There was no clear and present danger. I don't understand."
The grand jury issued a no bill in the case, meaning Fields will not face criminal charges.
"Despite the irrefutable medical evidence showing two fatal shots to Jazmir’s back and troubling facts about delayed medical aid and body-camera protocol, the grand jury refused to hold this officer criminally responsible, which could ultimately have a chilling effect on the entire community," attorneys for Tucker's family said in a statement.
The family is being represented by Michael Wright, Robert Gresham and Shean Williams of The Cochran Firm.
Officers did not turn their bodycams on when they exited their car, which Malik questioned after the footage was released. The cameras were only turned on by the presence of a nearby cruiser with activated lights. The footage does not show the altercation between officers and Tucker before shots were fired, and there is no audio until after shots were fired. It does show that officers did not render aid for several minutes before approaching Tucker to handcuff him.
Hill is "sad and not surprised" by the decision, she said.
"Clearly there's gotta be a time where justice prevails. It has to," Hill said. "I don't get it. How do you shoot somebody in the back, and it's OK? I don't understand that one."
A community organizing group, The Freedom BLOC, called the decision a greenlight to keep killing Black people without consequence.
"When the friends of the police (the prosecutor's office) investigate the police and then present those findings to a grand jury, justice for Black communities will never be the outcome," Executive Director Rev. Ray Greene Jr. said in the statement. "Every time a grand jury refuses to hold an officer responsible, the system tells us loud and clear that Black life in Akron is disposable."
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation investigated the case, which was then turned over to the Mahoning County Prosecutor's Office to present to a grand jury.
The Akron Police Department will now conduct an internal investigation to determine if any department policies or procedures were violated. Once complete, the investigation will be turned over to the city's police auditor for review.
What's in the BCI report?
Following Thursday's no bill, the Ohio Attorney General's office released the BCI report on the investigation into the shooting.
In an interview with BCI agents about a month after the shooting, Fields stated after hearing the initial gunshots, he and his partner began to follow Tucker. Fields thought the original gunshots could have led to someone being shot and possibly dying in the parking lot area where he believed the shots had come from, he said.
Fields began jogging toward Tucker, and when he was 30 to 40 feet away, he said he used his rifle-mounted flashlight to illuminate Tucker's legs and yelled for him to put his hands up. He said Tucker turned around, looked at him and took off running. Fields said he saw a police cruiser with its lights on going past and saw Tucker reach toward the front of his waistband as though he was going to shoot at the cruiser. That's when Fields said he fired several rounds at Tucker.
Fields told investigators he chose to use his rifle, because he could not tell what kind of weapon was being fired and the rifle was more accurate and easier to control.
Fields told investigators that training and previous experience informed his decision to wait to approach Tucker for aid until ballistic shields had arrived with other officers, due to concerns that Tucker could have been setting a trap to shoot or fight officers when they got closer.
Fields told investigators he activated his body worn camera when he saw Tucker. However, his camera was activated by a nearby cruiser.
What's next?
The Freedom BLOC called for Akron's police oversight board to begin a full investigation and recommend the immediate termination of Fields.
“There will undoubtedly be many reactions to today’s news. For those who wish to speak out – your speech and advocacy are constitutionally-protected, and the city of Akron will safeguard those rights," Malik and Police Chief Brian Harding said in a statement. "Violence and property damage are unacceptable and will not be tolerated."
The fatal shooting of Tucker is the latest in a string of fatal police shootings against Black men, including the death of Michael Jones in August of 2024 and Jayland Walker in 2022. Walker's death led to outrage and calls for police reform, leading to a citizen-led charter amendment creating the Citizens' Police Oversight Board.
"Separate and apart from the criminal and disciplinary processes, we believe that fatal encounters should be examined for lessons learned," Malik and Harding said in the statement.
Malik announced last week that the city hired a national police research organization, Police Executive Research Forum, to perform a review of the police department's use of force policy.
"With their help, Akron will collectively seek the best outcomes possible in dangerous situations," Malik and Harding said in Thursday's statement.
Hill said the city's policing system is broken, including the process of the Citizens' Police Oversight Board reviewing police practices and making recommendations to the mayor's office and chief of police.
"Let's be honest about the review process. None of the recommendations to this point that I am aware of that the oversight board has made to the mayor and his office have been honored or has anything happened," she said. "They are just recommendations that sit on a shelf."
This process needs to change, Hill said.
"It may call for us to do something different and look at that oversight board policies and procedures," she said. "Maybe we need to make some changes and additions to that work."
This could include taking the issue back to the voters via a charter amendment to give the oversight board the ability to enforce recommendations, Hill said.
"We will pursue every legal avenue possible to ensure Jazmir's family receives the justice they so deserve, including filing a wrongful-death lawsuit, which will provide another path for accountability, including access to discovery," attorneys for Tucker's family said in a statement. "Additionally, we will join efforts to mandate more robust grand jury transparency. The current grand jury model — a closed proceeding relying solely on the prosecutor’s presentation — fails to harness the broader insight grand jurors might offer this family and others."
Tucker will be remembered as "a great kid, full of laughter and kindness," attorneys said in a statement.
"His memory endures and demands that justice be pursued not just in legal filings but in how our community reforms policing to ensure no parent faces such a tragic loss again," the family's attorneys said in a statement.
