When Akron police Officer Davon Fields said he heard gunshots on Thanksgiving night in 2024, he immediately reached to his right and unlocked a vertical rifle rack inside his cruiser.
Fields grabbed his personally owned Aero Precision X15 with a magazine that contained 28 rifle cartridges, plus an extra magazine, and began tracking the person moving away from where he thought he heard the shots. The long gun was outfitted with a laser sight, a scope, a mounted flashlight, and a suppressor wrapped around the barrel.
Fields was pursuing 15-year-old Jazmir Tucker, whom he shot three times with the 5.56-caliber cartridges, killing him.
The teenager’s death brought to light a little-known Akron Police Department practice that allows patrol officers to use their personal long guns in addition to their department-issued pistols. Officers can carry their personal rifles if they complete a three-day course, pass annual training and meet state qualification standards.
The killing also instigated a potential change in that practice and sparked debate among city stakeholders about what is best for the Akron Police Department.
Included among 171 funding proposals in Akron Mayor Shammas Malik’s $342 million 2026 capital budget is a $255,000 proposal to fund both the replacement of routine police equipment and initiate the process of purchasing department-issued rifles so officers no longer use their own.
Community conversations about officers carrying personal long guns
“Since that shooting, we’ve looked at this and this is the direction we want to move in,” Malik told reporters earlier this month in a preview of his budget proposals. “I do understand the perception that exists from an officer carrying a personal weapon and I think, all things being equal, this is a direction we want to move in.”
The line item represents .08% of the budget — the city has not indicated how much of that will go to rifles. It is unclear how much Fields paid for the rifle used to kill Tucker, but used models online are typically sold for $800 to $1,200, and his gun has hundreds of dollars worth of accessories.
“The amount of money we’re putting forward this year will not get it completely done, but we want it to begin,” Malik said. The mayor said the effort is a result of “community conversations” and that his administration and police leadership “worked together on a solution to it.”
Akron police auditor: Either model can work with enough oversight
Independent Police Auditor Anthony Finnell, who investigates misconduct by Akron police officers and probes the internal investigations into them, issued a report to the Citizens’ Police Oversight Board. He shared it with the mayor’s office after learning about the long gun proposal.
Finnell reported that police departments began rapidly arming officers with rifles after the bloody 1997 North Hollywood shootout, when two bank robbers with body armor and automatic weapons engaged in a gunbattle with outgunned police officers, along with subsequent school shootings like the killings at Columbine High School in 1999.
“Across the United States, a number of police agencies permit officers to carry personally owned patrol rifles once they complete agency-specific training and pass a qualification course, often paired with an approved list of makes, models, and accessories to ensure safety, consistency, and liability control,” he wrote. “At the same time, many agencies choose to issue rifles centrally and prohibit personally owned guns on duty. Both approaches can be effective when grounded in clear policy, robust training, and recurring certification.”
Finnell cited agencies with “successful patrol-role programs,” like the Oakland Police Department, which has “clear selection, certification, and training protocols” for particular authorized models that may be used “in specific tactical roles, subject to leader approval and qualification.” He also highlighted the Austin Police Department in Texas and the Bay Area Rapid Transit Police in California, which have highly specific regulations.
Either model — personal or department-issued rifles — can work, he wrote, “as long as it incorporates policy clarity, training rigor, and disciplined oversight.”
Council member: Arming patrol officers with long guns ‘is not justified’
Akron City Council member Eric Garrett, a frequent critic of the police department and the mayor, sent a scathing letter to Malik on Jan. 7, writing that the “troubling” plan “can only be described as Donald Trump-like moves to militarize our streets.”
“The audacity to suggest that all patrol officers be equipped with department-issued, military-style rifles is an affront to our community,” Garrett continued. “This, sadly, appears to be your version of police reform, while simultaneously retaining the officer who modified a military-style assault weapon that was ultimately used in the killing of a child. … I firmly believe that had proactive police reform been implemented when promised, Jazmir Tucker would be alive today. This tragedy was not inevitable; it was preventable. Instead, we are left with a decision that adds more rifles while leaving intact the conditions, and individuals, that allowed this to happen in the first place.”
Malik previously told Signal Akron that the money earmarked in the budget for department-issued rifles wouldn’t cover rifles for all patrol officers, as Garrett suggested.
Police union president: Long guns are ‘basic, essential tools’
Brian Lucey, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police Akron Lodge #7, lambasted Garrett in an open letter for “lecturing experts on firearms he clearly doesn’t remotely understand” (Garrett is a veteran of the U.S. Army) and for bringing up Tucker’s death in connection to the policy proposal. (See the full letter below.)
Lucey is in favor of department-issued rifles.
“Patrol rifles — like standard AR-15 issued by most police departments in the country — are basic, essential tools used by police departments everywhere to match the threats our officers face daily,” the union president wrote.
“RIght now, if an officer wants a patrol rifle for these real-world dangers, they have to buy it themselves — out of pocket — then get it inspected and qualify annually just to carry it,” Lucey said in the letter. “The city’s plan? Finally provide consistent department-owned rifles so training is uniform, accountability is tighter, and officers aren’t stuck footing the bill for gear they need to survive. That’s not militarization; that’s common sense.”
Police: No plans around issuing rifles, at least for now
While the capital budget as a whole and the budget line item for department-issued rifles in particular are being debated by Akron City Council, the mayor’s office finished its budget presentation to council members on Jan. 12. Many details still need to be worked out before officers no longer use their personal rifles.
“Chief [Brian] Harding touched on this briefly during a meeting just to make the staff aware,” said APD spokesperson Lt. Michael Murphy in an email on Tuesday, “but because this is still in the early stages, there is no plan or procedure in place to address this.”
Murphy said more details could be known after City Council votes on the budget, which is required to happen by Feb. 15.