‘Deeply Troubling’: Ohio Police Under Fire In Death of 15-Year-Old Black Boy Gunned Down by Officers Who Don’t Administer Aid for Minutes Instead Shout Demands As Teen Lay Dying
Questions are mounting among community members in one northeast Ohio city where a 15-year-old Black teenager was shot by police on Thanksgiving night.
Police in Akron, Ohio, have released few details since 15-year-old Jazmir Tucker was gunned down by an officer armed with a rifle outside Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts.
Authorities say that just after 11 p.m. on Nov. 28, two officers parked in their patrol unit at East Avenue and Vernon Odom Boulevard heard the gunshots ring out.
Those officers exited their squad car and started searching the area and encountered Tucker, who was “walking from the area where the shots were heard,” according to the Akron Fraternal Order of Police.
The officers started running after him and one fired his long gun, striking Tucker.
Police released bodycam footage of the shooting, but portions of the video are hard to make out since the camera is obstructed by a view of one officer’s rifle. Viewers are unable to see what Tucker was doing before he was shot.
The first 30 seconds of the video, which show the moment the cop pulled the trigger, also lack audio so it’s also difficult to determine the number of shots fired at the 15-year-old. Sound is absent from the beginning of the video because of a feature that excludes audio when officers first activate their cameras.
The footage does show multiple officers at the scene, some with their guns raised, and when audio finally filters through, viewers can hear the moments when they start shouting, “Put your hands out to your side,” after Tucker was shot.
Several minutes pass before all the officers approach a wounded Tucker, who is laying face-down on the ground, and administer medical aid. Footage shows one cop handcuff the teen, then unzip his jacket pocket where he finds a handgun. Tucker was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
During a press conference, Akron Police Chief Brian Harding didn’t provide the straight answers the community was hoping for, stating that he doesn’t have “all the facts” just yet.
Harding said that he doesn’t yet know why the officer fired at Tucker, how many times Tucker was shot, and whether officers gave the teen any commands before shots were fired. It’s also unclear why it took so long for officers at the scene to render medical aid after the shooting.
“Even after viewing the videos, there are many things we do not know. I know that there are many in our community who will have questions and concerns related to the timeliness of the body-worn camera activation, the delay in rendering aid, and the shooting itself. I hear those concerns, and my hope is that the investigation will provide more clarity,” Harding stated.
“In hindsight, the amount of time that expired between the shooting and the initiation of physical aid to Jazmir is deeply troubling to me,” Akron Mayor Shammas Malik said in the statement.
Authorities also haven’t released the name of the officer who shot Tucker, but said he has been with the Akron Police Department for nearly five years. He and his partner have been placed on administrative leave.
As for the reason the officer had a rifle drawn, Harding stated that the department’s cops will respond with rifles rather than handguns when they know a suspect is armed.
Two shell casings were recovered from the scene that officials say are currently being analyzed. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is leading the probe into the shooting. Akron Police have launched a separate, internal investigation.
“Due to the angle of the body cameras and the bright light shining on Jazmir after he was initially shot, it’s hard to make out from the videos what exactly happened leading up to the shooting and immediately following it. A gun was recovered from Jazmir’s zipped-up jacket pocket. Given that, why did the officer decide to use his weapon?” said Akron Mayor Malik on Thursday.
Family members of Tucker, who was a freshman at North High School, shared their devastation at the teen’s death.
“Jaz was my sweetheart. He was with us, at my house always, from the time he was a baby and there was nothing he wouldn’t do for anybody and I miss him,” Tucker’s great-aunt Connie Sutton said.
“I couldn’t help my baby, and it hurt to see that nobody helped my baby,” Tucker’s mom Ashley Green said.