By: Anna Chuang

On June 27, 25-year-old American black man Jayland Walker was shot in Akron, Ohio and killed by 8 police officers.

Walker was pursued by many police officers after he refused to get pulled over for a traffic and equipment violation. After he was cornered by the police, he fled from his car. After the incident, there was a gun, loaded magazine, and a gold ring found in Walker’s font seat.

The officers shot him more than 60 times. According to msn.com, Jayland Walker’s family’s lawyer said that he was “shot more than I can count.”

Several protests arose after this incident, and the Fourth of July fireworks in Chicago were also canceled.

According to ABC News, Police Chief Steve Mylett said on Sunday, “When an officer makes the most critical decision in his or her life as a police officer, it doesn’t matter where in the country this happens, when they make that most critical decision to point their firearm at another human being and pull the trigger, they’ve got to be ready to explain why they did what they did. They need to be able to articulate what specific threats they were facing, and that goes for every round that goes down the barrel of their gun.” This quote is significant because it shows that the only logical reason for a police officer to pull the trigger of their gun is for self-defense – but the officers that shot Walker just saw him as a threat, and shot him without thinking twice. Walker was completely unarmed, so there is no reason for the officers to think that they were in danger. So there was no reason for Walker to get killed.