Exactly two years after Michael Jones was killed by an Akron Police officer at an East Avenue gas station, the family of the 54-year-old man filed a $4.5 million lawsuit in federal court.
The suit alleges that the officers used excessive force, that their supervisors are also liable for endorsing the conditions that led to the killing, and that the city is liable for “shielding officers from consequences” and for “fostering racist and violent ideas,” among other accusations.
On Aug. 17, 2024, Jones was killed by Akron Police Officer Michael Novak who, alongside his partner, Officer Nakoa Anderson, pulled up next to a gas pump behind a U-Haul truck driven by Jones.
The truck had been reported as unreturned by an employee at the rental company 13 hours earlier. Novak shot Jones, who appeared confused about what was happening as the truck started slowly rolling forward and turned onto the street in front of the gas station while officers tried to pull him from the truck.
Signal Akron extensively covered the circumstances of the shooting.
Last August, roughly a year after the shooting and a year before the lawsuit, a Summit County grand jury declined to indict Novak following a presentation by special prosecutors from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office of information gathered by the AG’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
The lawsuit places blame on the officers, accusing them of aggressively responding to a nonviolent allegation and creating the danger cited as justification for killing Jones by unnecessarily “jumping” into the truck, which was not on a path to hurt them.
It also said the killing was made possible by the City of Akron and the Akron Police Department’s “systemic and on-going” misconduct that facilitated a “culture of violence” through lack of discipline and trained officers on what to say after incidents to make shootings appear justifiable, amid other allegations.
The City of Akron’s spokesperson declined to comment.
Jones’ family is represented by DiCello Levitt LLP, the same law firm that represented Jayland Walker’s family in a lawsuit that eventually led to a $4.85 million settlement, among other terms. In the lawsuit filed on Aug. 17 over Jones’ killing, attorneys are asking for at least $10 million (the firm’s complaint in the Walker suit originally asked for $45 million).
Since the August 2024 shooting and the killing of Jazmir Tucker three months later, Akron Mayor Shammas Malik has initiated a use-of-force policy review that recommends some widespread changes that the city says it will implement.
The City of Akron recently settled a lawsuit from Tucker’s family for $4.75 million and fired the officer who killed Tucker.
