The family of Jazmir Tucker filed a lawsuit against the city of Akron on Tuesday, nearly a year after his death. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, lists the defendants as the city, Mayor Shammas Malik, Police Chief Brian Harding, Officer Davon Fields, Officer Steven Loar and other officers.
Fields and Loar initially approached the 15 year old on Nov. 28, 2024, after hearing gunshots while working on a previous call at East Avenue and Vernon Odom Boulevard, according to the initial police report. Body cam footage from the incident starts with both officers running toward Tucker, who was Black, with weapons drawn. Fields fired at him with an AR-15 style rifle. Tucker is not seen in the video until he is being handcuffed. At least seven minutes passed before an officer began administering medical aid. Police later found a handgun in Tucker's zipped coat pocket. The autopsy report showed Tucker was fatally shot two times in the back and was also shot in the arm.
The filing claims unconstitutional use of force and municipal liability for training and oversight failures.
"Akron is more aggressive and more violent than other police departments," said Robert Gresham, attorney for the family, "and it's a culture that they've ignored those tendencies for decades."
The suit states this culture disproportionately impacts people of color.
"Since 2000, according to publicly available data, there have been more than 40 deaths in Akron involving Akron police," the lawsuit states. "Over half of those killed were Black, in a city where only 31% of the residents are Black."
The suit seeks compensatory and consequential damages in an amount to be determined by the court.
"This case is about the accountability of Officer Fields, but it's not just about the accountability of one officer," Gresham said. "It's about a violent policing culture in this city. A culture that continues to escalate encounters before confirming a threat exists. This isn't the first time. It's part of a pattern."
The police shooting of Jayland Walker, a 25 year old Black man, in 2022 led to mass protests across the city and the passage of a citizen led ballot initiative that created a Citizens' Police Oversight Board. In 2024, an Akron officer shot and killed Michael Jones, a 54 year old Black man. Earlier this month, an Akron officer shot an unarmed man outside of a bar.
"When you train officers like combat soldiers, you get combat responses," Gresham said. "When the city fails to correct the culture after each shooting, you get repeat tragedies."
The suit goes beyond compensation for Tucker's family, calling for the department to make substantial changes, Gresham said.
"Mandatory de-escalation and constitutional use of force training, clear restrictions on rifle deployment and foot pursuits, real civilian oversight backed by subpoena power, discipline for officers who fail to activate their cameras and more importantly, leadership, and we're talking to the mayor now, leadership that will acknowledge the harm," he said.
Fields and his partner did not turn their body cams on when they exited their car. The body cam footage does not show the altercation between Tucker and officers before shots were fired, and there is no audio until after shots were fired.
Community members have called for the city to give the CPOB more power. Currently, the board can review police policies and make recommendations, but the city does not have the implement them.
The lawsuit claims Akron maintained a training program heavily focused on firearms and tactical operations, while offering minimal de-escalation, juvenile encounter or use of force refresher training.
"Officer Fields in particular received extensive firearms and SWAT [Special Weapons And Tactics] training, rifle drills, night vision operations, gas mask tactics," Gresham said, "but he received almost no training in de-escalation, adolescent encounters, mental health response or even proper body camera activation."
In October, a grand jury declined to indict Fields in the fatal shooting of Tucker.
"The day that he passed, they were enjoying Thanksgiving together, and Jazmir was trying to leave to make sure he could go visit some more of his family who were down the street," Stanley Jackson, another lawyer on the family's legal team, said. "Just a boy wanted to go visit the rest of his family, because he loved family. That was important to him."
Tucker will be remembered as loving and helpful, his great uncle, Efrem Frazier, said.
"I remember the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, he and Amir [Tucker's twin brother] came by my mom's house to help us out, cleaning the house, getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner, and he was just helping," he said. "'Granny, anything that you need, done.'"
His family wants the community to remember him as more than the headlines, Frazier said.
"This was not someone who hated. This was 15-year-old boy, who loved his grandmother, who loved his mother, who loved his brother," he said. "He didn't deserve this."
In a statement, a spokesperson for the city said they do not comment on pending litigation.
