When he entered Akron’s police academy in December of 2019, Officer Davon Fields said he was inspired to become an officer to help 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.”
Nearly five years later, Fields shot and killed 15-year-old Jazmir Tucker on Thanksgiving night with an accessorized assault-style rifle he owned.
Tucker was not the first person Fields killed as an Akron police officer.
In 2022, according to investigative records on the Ohio Attorney General’s website that were examined by Signal Akron, Fields shot an armed man named Lawrence Rodgers in the chest with an assault-style rifle — an Aero Precision 5.56 NATO semi-automatic rifle, according to Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation records. BCI records indicate that immediately after Fields shot Rodgers, the man fled to his living room and shot and killed another man before succumbing to his wounds.
Fields’ personnel file obtained in a public records request doesn’t mention the shooting, but shows he was placed on paid leave the same day as the shooting. Another officer also fired at Rodgers.
Fields has not previously been publicly connected to the shooting and has not been accused of wrongdoing in civil or criminal court in that incident.
Four months later, Fields was at the scene of Jayland Walker’s killing armed with a rifle, but he did not pull his trigger. He later told investigators he did not have a clear shot.
Records obtained by Signal Akron indicate Fields filed 36 use-of-force reports since January 2022, not including the shootings of Rodgers and Tucker.
In the Nov. 28, 2024, shooting of Tucker, a freshman at North High School, analysis of body-worn camera video — initially without recorded audio — shows Fields and his partner ran from the parking lot of Miller South School for Visual and Performing Arts to the school’s front lawn, where Tucker was standing near the sign in front of the building.
The interaction between Fields and Tucker was not recorded before the teenager is shot. A gun was eventually located zipped away in Tucker’s jacket pocket.
Questions about the officer’s actions, along with other officers who responded to the scene, have since been raised by members of City Council, Akron Mayor Shammas Malik and community leaders.
Failure to turn on body-worn cameras means no audio from initial encounter
Fields’ body-worn camera, along with his partner’s, was not recording video until it was automatically activated when another cruiser nearby turned on its lights, too late to meaningfully document the initial encounter with Tucker, according to a statement from Malik when the footage was released.
Fields’ and his partner’s actions in the incident were not visible on camera until he and his partner drew closer to the teen on the edge of the front lawn of Miller South. Because they exited their cruiser, which was parked nearby as they completed reports from an unrelated incident, there is no dash cam video as they approach the scene.
Without audio, any commands or verbal observations made by the officers are unverifiable. The footage also showed officers waited at least seven minutes to approach the motionless teenager after Fields shot him.
Signal Akron is still waiting after more than two weeks for other public records such as radio traffic and dispatch audio, along with any 911 calls made about the gunfire the officers reported hearing. Once Fields’ identity was verified, his personnel file, any disciplinary records related to his tenure as an Akron police officer and any firearms and accessories approval records related to the rifle he was carrying were also requested.
Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation records indicate that Fields had peripheral involvement in the APD’s killing of Walker. Accompanied by a police union lawyer and the police union president, Fields told the BCI that he responded to the scene where Walker was eventually killed, grabbed his “patrol rifle” and attempted to catch Walker. He saw other officers shoot Walker but told the investigators he didn’t fire because he was too close to the other officers who responded and that his training dictated that he not fire his weapon in that situation.
Court: City can legally withhold officers’ names if they may be criminally charged
Malik declined to identify Tucker’s shooter in a Dec. 6 press conference, the day after the mayor’s office released some of the body camera footage from the deadly incident, as required by city law.
In declining to name the shooter, the mayor said the city weighs “specific threats” officers face “versus the value that we do have in transparency.” Signal Akron asked the mayor’s office and police department on Dec. 6, Dec. 10 and Dec. 15 if specific threats had been made against the officer.
Captain Michael Miller responded on Dec. 16 that “at least one officer’s alleged personal information, including photos, has been shared online.” Miller said that the “entire department” also received threats in the wake of the shooting.
The City of Akron continues to withhold the names of the officers who shot and killed Jayland Walker — nearly two and a half years since the incident that eventually led to a $4.85 million settlement.
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled on December 6 that, because of an exemption in a state law, the city does not have to reveal the names of the officers who kill people when they are considered “uncharged suspects.”
In the lawsuit that led to the Supreme Court decision, the Beacon Journal also sought the identities of the officers who killed Lawrence Rodgers in 2022, names the court now says must be released. Based on BCI records reviewed by Signal Akron, the two officers involved are Fields and Zachary McCormick.
In October, McCormick punched a student in the head at Firestone Community Learning Center, which is at least the 21st use-of-force incident he was involved in since March 2021.
The City of Akron did not provide records about McCormick’s role in the Rodgers case when it responded to a public records request submitted by Signal Akron.
The city has also not publicly disclosed the names of the officers involved in the Aug. 17 shooting of Michael Jones, who police said had stolen a U-Haul truck, but Ideastream identified them as Nakoa Anderson and Michael Novak. Neither of the officers’ personnel files showed they had been the subject of disciplinary action. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s report has not yet been made public.
All available information points to Fields
Despite the city initially withholding his identity, Signal Akron independently verified that Fields was, in fact, the officer who killed Tucker on Thanksgiving night. The City of Akron also confirmed Tuesday that Fields was the officer who shot Tucker.
Stanley Jackson, Tucker’s family’s attorney from the Cochran Firm, told Signal Akron that City of Akron Law Director Deborah Matz told him it was Davon Fields. Three members of Akron City Council also named Fields during the Dec. 9 meeting and called for him to be fired — no other members of council corrected the record by saying Fields was not the officer involved.
In a letter to Malik on December 9, Council Member Eric Garrett also named Fields and called for him to be fired.
Other records also pointed toward Fields’ involvement.
In an APD press release four hours after Tucker was killed, the shooter was described as “a nearly 5-year veteran of the police department.” According to records from the Ohio Attorney General’s office, Fields joined the APD as a cadet on Dec. 11, 2019, and was appointed a full-time officer on May 29, 2020.
State law allows “designated public service workers” such as police officers to shield their home addresses from public records. The request to shield Fields’ address was made Dec. 6, the same day the city and Tucker’s family held press conferences amid outcry over what the video footage did and did not show after it was released the night before.
Records obtained by Signal Akron also indicate that law enforcement officers began conducting “extra patrols” at Fields’ address within hours after the body camera footage was released. Prior to the shooting, there was only one instance in the previous two years of law enforcement documenting anything at his address — a car crash in 2023 involving people not connected to Fields. Between the evening of Dec. 5 and the morning of Dec. 11, officers were recorded checking in at his home 24 times.
Fields said he was in the Army reserves
Fields told the Beacon Journal in 2019 that he grew up in Detroit. His personnel file, obtained by Signal Akron, shows that he went to high school in Kent.
In records released by BCI about the 2022 killing of Rodgers, the officer identified by Signal Akron as Fields told City of Akron attorney Craig Morgan he was in the U.S. Army Reserves as an armorer.
“I’ve always worked with weapons,” Fields said, according to an APD report about the Rodgers investigation.
“I’ve had extensive amount of training with weapons, rifle specifically.”
Editor’s note: A passage was removed from the original story that may inadvertently provide personal information about Fields.