More than 600 days after Jazmir Tucker was shot in the back and killed with a high-powered rifle on Thanksgiving night in 2024, the City of Akron announced on Friday that it has fired the police officer who killed Tucker and announced a $4.75 million settlement of a federal lawsuit over the killing filed by Tucker’s family.
The firing of Akron Police Officer Davon Fields is not a condition of the lawsuit settlement, said Tucker family attorney Robert Gresham, but he said he’s glad to see it. The firing and settlement is an indication to Gresham that Akron Mayor Shammas Malik is taking “substantive steps” toward police reform.
“The settlement is accountability in the civil process,” but no amount of money could represent the value of Tucker’s life, Gresham said. He represents Tucker’s mother, Ashley Green. The settlement will not be final until approved by the Summit County Probate Court.
“The family is happy that Fields is being terminated – they’ve been asking for that from the beginning. These are two things that needed to happen in order for the city to take a real and significant step forward to changing the culture and the mayor has indicated that’s what he wants to do. The family is on board with that and they appreciate that the city has taken steps to take that accountability.”
Fields was not fired for the shooting itself — a statement from the mayor’s office about the settlement said the city admits no wrongdoing in that — but the city is claiming a combination of factors such as Fields not activating his body-worn camera before the killing and waiting more than seven minutes to approach the dying 15-year-old to provide aid afterward.
The city also said a second, unnamed officer was disciplined for body camera violations — records show that officer was Steven Loar, a rookie at the time who didn’t fire a shot.
APD rules dictate that officers are to activate their body cameras when doing policework, but it’s not a violation if doing so would be dangerous in a “situation requiring immediate action.”
Fields told state investigators he and his partner heard gunshots in the distance the night Tucker was killed. He then grabbed his rifle from the rack in his cruiser, spotted an unknown person walking away nearby and quietly walked up behind him before gunning him down when other cruisers arrived. He claimed he thought Tucker was about to shoot them.
Fields and his partner’s cameras were automatically activated when other cruisers arrived on scene, but too late to meaningfully document what happened before the shooting.
A statement from the city also referenced a separate ongoing criminal probe investigating allegations against Fields “that substantially impair his ability to perform the essential duties of a police officer.”
Signal Akron previously reported on a police report that said Fields was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in May. The Summit County Sheriff’s Office told Signal Akron that the investigation is ongoing.
Police union: No murder indictment should mean no workplace discipline
The Fraternal Order of Police Akron Lodge #7, the police union representing all but the highest-ranking sworn members of the department, released a seething Facebook post on Wednesday against the impending firing and vowed to fight it, claiming it violates the police union contract’s window for disciplinary action.
Brian Lucey, the police union president, called Fields’ pending termination “politics at its worst” and said Malik “is trying to appease politicians and interest groups who are unhappy that an independent citizen grand jury cleared our officer.”
Inside the grand jury room in the Summit County Court of Common Pleas in October, prosecutors from Mahoning County presented evidence gathered by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
The prosecutors gave the grand jury one decision to make on an indictment of Fields: Murder or not murder. The grand jury said the homicide was not murder. A murder charge for a police officer requires a far higher threshold than for a civilian because an officer’s stated feelings at the moment of the killing are prioritized over evidence of what actually happened.
Lucey argued that because the grand jury didn’t indict Fields for murder that any workplace discipline stemming from that night is Malik “sticking his thumb in the eye of the grand jurors.”
The mayor’s office released statements from Malik and Chief of Public Safety Craig Morgan on the firing of Davon Fields.
Statements from Malik and the city’s Director of Law, Brian Angeloni, were also released about the settlement of the lawsuit with the Tucker family.
