“Michael Jones lost his life on the street I grew up on,” said Ward 9 Council Member Tina Boyes at Monday’s Akron City Council meeting, its first since returning from August recess.
Jones’ fatal shooting Aug. 17 by an Akron police officer over a U-Haul truck he was suspected of stealing left council members with unanswered questions.
“For the life of me, I don’t understand why this man was even shot,” said At-Large Council Member Linda Omobien at Monday’s meeting. “I don’t understand why the gun was even pulled out of the holster.”
Boyes spoke about the residents in her ward and their reactions to the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
“My constituents also wonder what they would do in an officer’s shoes if a driver drove off, leaving them hanging by an open door. Still others wonder what would they do if they found that they were under arrest but weren’t told why,” Boyes said.
When two officers saw a suspected stolen U-Haul truck at a Kenmore gas station, they pulled behind it.
Boyes said that by the day Jones was killed, he had been evicted and without a home for several weeks, keeping his belongings in the back of a U-Haul.
One of the officers approached Jones, who was in a U-Haul truck parked at a gas station in the 2200 block of East Avenue, and asked him to get out of the vehicle. Jones asked, “What’s going on?” The officer continued to tell him to get out of the truck and said he was under arrest.
When Jones did not step out of the vehicle, and instead asked why he was under arrest, the second officer reached into the truck cab to grab Jones. The vehicle began to move, carrying the officers with it. As the vehicle turned the corner onto the street, one of the officers shot Jones.
The scuffle that ensued and led to Jones’ death was captured by surveillance and body-worn camera footage. But more than three weeks after the incident, the reports from the two officers involved have not been released by the Akron Police Department.
“All I know is one man was doing his life’s work, and another man didn’t know where his life was heading. In a second, a man lost his life, and another man’s life was changed forever for taking it,” Boyes said. “Yes, two things can be true at the same time.”
Council approves additional recreational marijuana dispensary
One month after recreational marijuana sales began in Akron, Bloom Cannabis, located at 737 E. North St., will be added to the list of dual-use dispensaries, which offer both recreational and medical marijuana. In a unanimous vote at a special public hearing Monday, City Council approved a dual-use license for the facility and the expansion of its property.
The dual-use license is expected to create 40 full- and part-time jobs with an estimated annual payroll of $1.5 million per year.
There are also plans to add 40 off-site parking spots and a pedestrian bridge to link the parking areas to the facility.
Additional dual-use dispensaries with provisional licenses in Summit County:
- The Botanist, 46 S. Summit St., Akron
- Culture Cannabis Club, 1568 E. Archwood Ave., Akron
- FRX Health of Cuyahoga Falls, 1682 State Road, Cuyahoga Falls
- Curaleaf Cuyahoga Falls, 1220 Buchholzer Blvd., Cuyahoga Falls
