Jayland Walker funeral held in Ohio | USA TODAY

Mourners passed Jayland Walker's open casket wearing "Black Lives Matter" T-shirts as the community continues to heal from his fatal shooting.

RELATED: Akron Police Department releases bodycam video from the fatal shooting of Jayland Walker

Hundreds of people, including many of Walker’s relatives, passed his open casket during a viewing Wednesday morning at the Akron Civic Theatre in the heart of downtown where police and protesters have clashed during several demonstrations. Mourners shared stories of the 25-year-old, and many echoed sad and angry sentiments about Walker's death, another killing that has led to national rallying cries for police reform.

The family's decision to show Walker’s body during funeral services reminded some of the choice by Emmett Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, in 1955 that helped galvanize the national civil rights movement. Those in attendance said Walker's body was prepared for the open-casket viewing but some evidence of his wounds remained.

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49 comments

  1. You’re right Preach, there’s “nothing normal or all right” about leading police on a high-speed chase and then firing a gun at them while wearing a ski mask.

    1. @Pace Yourself See Juan Meza’s calculations regarding 60 shots. Makes sense (6 comments before your comment)

  2. He’s now in the beginning stages of serving his eternal sentence, so he’ll have plenty of time to reflect on all the nameless victims of his life of crime.

    1. We can be sure he committed crimes and got what was coming to him in this instance…but do we know enough to call it a ‘life of crime’ with ‘nameless victims’?

  3. Yes let us honer this criminal who put people’s life’s at risk for his selfish wish of suicide by cop and making them have to live with that

  4. Yes, keep putting criminals on pedestals. Who needs martyrs like MLK when you have saints such as Floyd, Walker, and Brown?

    1. And to top that off Martha Luther King was a legitimate man
      And for that time period in which he was still alive Martin Luther King influence the black community in America the entire black community in America and gave them a goal and also told them that they could coexist as well as we should coexist with them because his famous words is that you should not judge a man by the color of the skin but by the content of his character but instead nowadays we put these criminals on pedestals which spits on everything the Martin Luther King was trying to teach people

  5. We cannot normalize this, running from the police. These people are misguided, and it makes me sad.

    1. Now we get to put up with the sins of our fathers and the failure sons of their enemies.

  6. Just once I’d like to see them get up and be like “yeahhh.. he really shouldn’t have ran from the cops while firing at them… that was really not too smart of him” ..just one time

  7. Everyone who isn’t a family member or pastor speaking at this funeral is an evil person.

    1. Agreed!!
      You can understand his loved ones being blinded and irrational due to their emotion and grief. Even though he was a low life criminal….his family still loved him.

      But everyone else?!? They are running an agenda here.

  8. I’ll always remember him as that sweet boy…who was an armed and violent felon…shooting at cops and in general living that thug life.
    You want to not normalize “this”?
    Raise better children in your “community”.
    Jayland is right where he should be.

    1. “It was just awful,” she said. “I wish we could all just get along.” A group of about 20 people, some armed with semiautomatic rifles, came to Akron for the service.

  9. Since when did criminals start getting this much respect? Legit the body cam footage is jarring, but seriously stop glorifying criminals.

  10. “He was such a good boy. He was getting his life together. About to go back to school.”

  11. Oh Jayland, I just know you’re in heaven with your ski mask on, in the middle of a summer’s night, bustin caps on those police while you lead them on that high speed chase!
    Jesus, take the wheel – he’s comin home!
    Poor, poor Jayland

  12. “I dream of a nation in which our people can take police on a high speed chase, shoot at them, and them bail out wearing a ski mask headed for a school, a park, or a home where people may be without being shot justifiably!!”- MLK (right???)

  13. This is ridiculous… How dare you broadcast this… This guy is the perfect example of what not to be like.
    He brought this on himself

  14. You know what’s not all right pastor, it’s leading police on a vehicle pursuit, while firing rounds at them and then fleeing on foot at night wearing a ski mask. I hate he lost his life, but live by the sword die by the sword. You can only live that life for so long until it catches up with you.

  15. “It was just awful,” she said. “I wish we could all just get along.”
    A group of about 20 people, some armed with semiautomatic rifles, came to Akron for the service.

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