Akron police officer Davon Fields will not face criminal charges for the November 2024 killing of 15-year-old Jazmir Tucker, a Summit County grand jury determined on Thursday.
According to court records obtained by Signal Akron, Mahoning County prosecutors only asked grand jurors to consider a murder charge against Fields and, if they indicted him for murder, whether an additional firearms charge would apply.
The grand jury declined to indict Fields on either charge.
“Jazmir’s family is left grappling with loss, grief and unanswered questions,” attorneys for the Tucker family wrote in a statement. “We will pursue every legal avenue possible to ensure Jazmir’s family receives the justice they so deserve including filing a wrongful-death lawsuit which will provide another path for accountability, including access to discovery.
“Additionally, we will join efforts to mandate more robust grand jury transparency.”
Grand jury on Wednesday visits site of 2024 shooting
According to the grand jury’s no bill, the grand jury convened on Monday and made its decision by 10:34 a.m. on Thursday. The form says prosecutors presented nine witnesses.
An email from the principal of Miller South School for the Visual & Performing Arts — where Tucker was shot — to parents said prosecutors took grand jurors to the school grounds on Wednesday afternoon.
Mahoning County prosecutors presented the evidence gathered by state investigators to a local grand jury inside the Summit County Court of Common Pleas in downtown Akron. As word of the proceedings spread on Wednesday, Tucker’s relatives and supporters gathered outside the court with signs calling for Fields to be indicted.
On Thursday, as news broke, protestors returned to the courthouse.
A statement from the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office said that the grand jurors represented “a cross section of the community, listened earnestly, and asked many questions.” Summit County residents, it said, “can rest assured” that the grand jury process “was diligently fellowed and employed.”
Brian Lucey, president of the union representing Akron police officers, issued a statement after the grand jury’s decision placing blame for the situation on “juvenile courts, parents, and community leaders” and lambasted “the reckless and irresponsible” elected officials who criticized the killing in the immediate aftermath.
Lucey’s statement says, “Officers came face to face with Jazmir Tucker” after hearing the sound of gunshots and that “evidence showed that our officer acted appropriate in a life threatening situation” by killing Tucker because he “was carrying a recently-fired and loaded semi-automatic handgun with an extended magazine.”
An autopsy shows that Tucker was shot in the back, and body camera footage shows that Fields was some distance away from Tucker and that the teenager’s gun was zipped away in a jacket pocket when he was killed.
A combined statement attributed to Akron Mayor Shammas Malik and Police Chief Brian Harding:
• Sent condolences to Tucker’s family and friends
• Thanked the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation for investigating the case, the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office for presenting the evidence to a grand jury, and the grand jury for “honorably performing their civic duty.”
• Said that the City of Akron will safeguard the constitutional rights of those who speak out but “violence and property damage are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”
• Expressed support to Akron police officers for their “honorable” and “challenging” work.
• Highlighted the city’s review of the APD’s use-of-force policies.
2024 Thanksgiving night shooting
On Thanksgiving night last year, Fields used a high-powered rifle to shoot Tucker twice in the back, likely instantly killing him, the medical examiner said earlier this year, before officers later discovered a handgun zipped away in the teen’s jacket. Fields and backup officers waited more than seven minutes to approach the lifeless teen after the shooting in front of Miller South School.
The Summit County grand jury’s no bill on Thursday means it didn’t believe there was enough probable cause for a criminal charge for the officer after hearing a presentation from Mahoning County prosecutors. Fields, who has racked up dozens of use-of-force incidents in his five-year career, was previously cleared of wrongdoing for killing an Akron man named Lawrence Rodgers in 2022. He was also not indicted for that shooting.
Agents with the Ohio Bureau of Investigation, an arm of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, investigated the Thanksgiving night killing of Tucker, per APD policy. That investigation was completed in March. The AG’s office then selected Mahoning County prosecutors to present the case to a Summit County grand jury, which met this week determining on Thursday there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Fields.
The AG’s office will soon release files from the BCI investigation. According to previous reporting by Signal Akron, the video seen by the grand jury likely didn’t show all the details it could have related to the killing.
Fields and his partner didn’t activate their body-worn cameras in time to meaningfully document what happened prior to Tucker’s death. Their cameras only started recording when a nearby cruiser activated its overhead lights, according to statements from the city last year. Body-worn cameras only begin to record audio after the video has been recording for 30 seconds, so the video is silent until well after Tucker is dead. Fields’ body-worn camera is frequently blocked by the officer’s rifle before and during the shooting.
No other APD cameras captured the shooting, according to videos released after a public records request.
Security camera footage from that night, obtained by Signal Akron through a records request to Akron Public Schools, shows Tucker walking alone behind Miller South School. Minutes later, officers with flashlights search through the grass and parking lots, but none of the security footage shows the interaction between Fields and Tucker or what the teen was doing when he was killed.
Police said three weeks after Tucker’s death that they had recovered two shell casings nearby that they matched with Tucker’s gun, which was zipped away in his coat pocket when he was killed.
The Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office found in January that Tucker was shot in the back twice and arm once. The two shots to Tucker’s back — one that pierced his heart and left lung before exiting his body and another piercing his pelvis, small intestine and other organs — would have instantly been fatal. The gunshot to his right arm would not have been fatal, the autopsy said. It had “irregular” entrance and exit wounds, and it was unclear what direction the shot was fired from.
Signal Akron previously reported that when Davon Fields entered Akron’s police academy in 2019, he was inspired to become a police officer to change the negative perception people have of the police.
“[Growing up] I never heard anyone who had a good interaction with a cop,” Fields told the Akron Beacon Journal at the time. “I see it as a way to show that not all officers are aggressive.”
Fields has killed at least two people since entering the academy. Prior to shooting Tucker in 2024, Fields also used a rifle to kill a man named Lawrence Rodgers. Authorities did not accuse Fields of wrongdoing in that homicide.
Records obtained by Signal Akron late last year show that Fields has been the subject of 36 use-of-force reports since 2022, not including the deaths of Rodgers and Tucker.