Jayland Walker: No charges for officers in fatal Ohio arrest

A grand jury in Ohio has declined to indict eight officers who shot a black man in a traffic stop last year saying they were legally justified in killing him, the state's attorney general said.

An autopsy report found Jayland Walker, 25, was shot at least 46 times by Akron police after an attempted stop and chase for a minor traffic violation.

Police say that he fired a single shot at them first while fleeing in his car.

Mr Walker's death sparked major protests in Akron last year.

Body camera footage released by the police shows Walker, in a ski mask, jumping out of the moving vehicle from its passenger side and ducking into a parking lot where police opened fire on him from multiple directions.

Police later found an unloaded handgun, one magazine of ammunition and a wedding band in the driver's seat of his vehicle.

Ohio Republican Attorney General Dave Yost announced the jury's decision in a news conference on Monday.

He said that that the Akron police officers did not know that Walker's gun remained inside the car when he fled on foot, and that he made a threatening gesture before he was shot.

Walker "reached for his waistband in what several officers described as a cross-draw motion, planted his foot and turned toward the officers while raising hand," Mr Yost said.

"Only then did the officers fire, believing Mr Walker was firing again at them."

A toxicology report found that Walker, a food delivery driver with no criminal record, did not have drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of his death.

The fatal arrest took place on 27 June 2022 as officers attempted to stop him for a minor traffic violation - a darkened license plate light.

"Mr Walker was going through a very tough time in his life,"  said Assistant Attorney General Anthony Pierson on Monday, adding that his fiancée had died shortly beforehand.

"He was going through a very tough time and he was hurting. And that night that he encountered the police, he was not acting (like) himself," he said, according to NBC News.

"By all accounts, this was a good man, a good person with no prior criminal record, so he was not acting (like) himself."

The eight officers involved in the shooting were placed on administrative leave, but returned to work about three months after the shooting.

The group fired a total of 94 shots in a span of 6.7 seconds. Three of the officers fired 18 times each.

The jury's decision did not need to be unanimous in order for the officers to face charges. Seven of the nine jurors - who sat to hear five days of evidence - would have had to vote to indict in order for prosecutors to bring charges.

The specially-convened grand jury included six women and three men. Two of the three men are black, according to the Akron Beacon Journal newspaper.

Barricades had been erected at the Akron City Hall and the local courthouse ahead of the jury's decision.