NAACP Calls On Department of Justice To Investigate Killing of Jayland Walker

The killing of 25-year-old Jayland Walker during a traffic stop in Akron, Ohio, is another entry in the ongoing discussion of police brutality against Black Americans. While facts are still being gathered, the NAACP is calling on the Department of Justice and attorney general Merrick Garland to start their own federal civil rights investigation, the Associated Press reports.

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As NAACP President Derrick Johnson wrote in his letter, he feels that Walker was “executed by Akron, Ohio, police officers for a traffic violation” and specifically called out Garland to hold the Akron officers involved “to the fullest extent of the law.” Walker suffered at least 46 wounds as police fired over 90 rounds in his direction while he tried to run from the scene. According to the family’s lawyer, officers also handcuffed Walker’s dead body. Walker was unarmed when the police officers gunned him down.

Previously, the NAACP also released an anti-hate proposal after the Buffalo supermarket shooting that claimed the lives of ten Black people and called on Congress to pass gun control legislation. Johnson also met with Garland at the Justice Department headquarters in Washington.

From The Associated Press:

“We are urging you and your Department of Justice to conduct a thorough investigation into the murder of Jayland Walker, and — if what we all saw with our own eyes is true — federally charge the officers responsible for his gruesome assassination,” Johnson wrote to Garland.

While the Justice Department said they had no comment on Johnson’s letter, the agency stated they were “closely monitoring and reviewing the circumstances of” Walker’s death. The Justice Department also said that if evidence is uncovered that “reveals potential violations” of federal law, prosecutors would “take appropriate action.”

A part of Johnson’s letter spoke to the callous nature of the police officers who allegedly handcuffed Walker’s body while he was deceased.

“If the officers’ conduct did not scream just how inhumane and fatally dangerous they are, the very fact that they handcuffed his corpse speaks volumes,” Johnson said.