A week before the two-year anniversary of Jayland Walker’s killing, the City of Akron appears set to settle a federal lawsuit filed by a local activist group. The suit alleged unconstitutional tactics by police officers during protests following Walker’s death and after the Akron police officers who killed him were not indicted.
The lawsuit is about the use of “smoke bombs and tear gas against peaceful protesters,” unlawful police stops, searches, detentions and arrests, and the closure of public spaces that prevented protesters from gathering.
During a five-minute video conference on Thursday, attorneys representing the Akron Bail Fund and the City of Akron told U.S. Magistrate Judge James E Grimes Jr. that the two sides “have reached an agreement in principle,” the judge wrote today in a court document.
The terms of a formal settlement agreement, likely including policy changes, will be finalized “within a week’s time,” potentially landing on or near June 27, which is the two-year anniversary of Walker’s death.
Mayor Shammas Malik’s spokesperson told Signal Akron, “As the docket entry reflects, we’ve reached an agreement in principle however it is not finalized, and details are still being discussed so we have no comment to provide at this time.”
The Akron Bail Fund is represented by the same attorneys from the Cleveland-based Friedman, Gilbert & Gerhardstein law firm that represented protesters who alleged they were wrongfully arrested during Jayland Walker protests. That lawsuit was settled for $747,000 earlier this year.
The agreement in this lawsuit is expected to result in policy changes rather than monetary compensation, according to sources with knowledge of the pending agreement.
The Akron Bail Fund, according to the lawsuit, is a group with members who peacefully protest, support others protesting, and post bond for arrested protesters. Its mission is to “further the right of the people to dissent against the government, particularly express dissent against police violence and police misconduct.” On social media, its mission is described as “Liberating poor people from the colonial kkkourts and criminal-legal system. We won’t stop till we #FreeThemAll.”
“This case is about the City of Akron’s ongoing policy, practice, and custom of suppressing free speech and expression, including by using unnecessary police violence, against peaceful demonstrators who are speaking out against the shooting of Jayland Walker,” the lawsuit stated.
The group filed the lawsuit and temporary restraining order in April 2023, when Akron police responded forcefully to protesters upset that the officers who killed Walker were not indicted by a grand jury. It also alleged wrongdoing by police during the protests in the immediate aftermath of Walker’s killing in June 2022.
