On June 27, 2022, eight Akron police officers opened fire on a Black man, Jayland Walker, following a car chase, killing him in a barrage of bullets following a subsequent foot chase. Officers had claimed they saw gunfire from the car during the chase. The Summit County Medical Examiner later found that Walker had been wounded at least 46 times. But Akron police say no gun was found on Walker after the shooting. Walker's death was followed over the coming weeks by protests, at first peaceful, but some of which subsequently turned violent, prompting the Mayor Dan Horrigan to issue citywide dusk-to-dawn curfews.
Over the course of the summer and into the fall, Ideastream Public Media reporters covered the shooting and unfolding investigation into it, the civil unrest and calls for justice, a public funeral for Walker in the city's downtown and ultimately the unveiling of two and confusion over two competing ideas for a civilian police oversight board, one put forth by the mayor and passed by city council, the other, a ballot measure championed by civic groups and passed by voters in November which superseded the council's ordinance.
The ongoing coverage drew broadly on the resources of Ideastream Public Media news team, with primary reporting from Anna Huntsman and additional coverage from Matt Richmond, Ryan Loew, Stephanie Czekalinski, Annie Wu, Isabella Keller, Amy Eddings, Glenn Forbes and Andrew Meyer.