CLEVELAND, Ohio – An Akron police officer shot and killed a 15-year-old Maple Heights youth who was carrying a loaded gun Thursday night, authorities say.
The office of the Summit County medical examiner said late Friday night that Jazmir Tucker died in the shooting.
Police Capt. Michael Miller said in a statement that the shooting took place Thursday night at East Avenue and Vernon Odom Boulevard. He said two officers were working on a report from a prior incident in their patrol car when they heard gunshots about 11 p.m.
Shortly after they left the car, they confronted the youth with a gun, Miller said.
One of the officers, who has been with the force for nearly five years, shot Tucker, Miller said. The other officer, who has been with the department for less than a year, did not fire.
Miller, in a statement, did not indicate what prompted the officer to fire his weapon.
Miller said the officers helped the youth, and paramedics took him to a nearby hospital, where he died. The two officers have been placed on administrative leave, and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation will handle the case.
The state agency is also investigating another Akron police shooting, the death of Michael Donnell Jones, 54, in August. Jones, of Akron, was shot during a confrontation at a gas station in the 2200 block of East Avenue when officers saw what they believed to be a stolen U-Haul truck parked at a gas station.
Officers attempted to get Jones from the vehicle, which continued to accelerate, according to body-camera video of the incident that police released. One of the officers then fired his weapon during the struggle.
The Thursday night shooting came a month after Akron agreed to pay $4.85 million to the family of Jayland Walker, who was killed when officers fired 94 shots at him after a car chase in 2022.