Grand Jury Clears Officer Involved In Michael Jones' 2024 Shooting

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Officials in Akron, Ohio, have cleared the officer who fired two shots into a U-Haul vehicle, killing 54-year-old Michael Donnell Jones during a stop in 2024.

On Aug. 13, after more than eight months of investigation, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), under the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, concluded that there was insufficient evidence to charge the Akron police officer involved in the fatal shooting of Jones, a Black resident, last year, according to News 5 Cleveland.

As Signal Akron reported, special prosecutors waited four months before presenting the case to a Summit County grand jury, which met Tuesday morning. The panel ultimately declined to bring any charges.

In a statement, the Akron Fraternal Order of Police’s Brian Lucey defended the officer’s actions, stating that evidence supported the officer’s use of force, calling it lawful and appropriate “in a life-threatening situation.”

“We stand by our officer, who followed his training in a deadly situation,” said Lucey, according to News 5 Cleveland. “Our officer was being dragged down a street by a stolen truck and had no choice but to defend his own life. While the loss of life is always tragic, our officers all deserve to go home to their families at [the] end of their shift.”

What led to the shooting?

The incident took place on the morning of Aug. 17, 2024, in a gas station parking lot on East Avenue in Akron. An officer investigating a reported stolen U-Haul found Jones inside the vehicle.

Body camera footage shows the officer repeatedly ordering Jones to exit the truck, stating he was under arrest—though no specific reason was mentioned. Jones responded with confusion, asking, “What’s going on?” and “For what?”

A physical struggle broke out when the officer tried to remove him. A second officer then arrived, and both attempted to gain partial access to the driver’s side of the vehicle. Surveillance footage shows the U-Haul lurching forward with the officers still partly inside. During the struggle, one of the officers—identified through public records as Matthew Novak—reportedly fired two shots, according to court records obtained by Signal Akron. Jones was hit, pulled from the vehicle, and handcuffed. The other officer, identified as Nakoa Anderson, did not shoot.

Despite receiving first aid at the scene, Jones was pronounced dead shortly after.

At the time of the shooting, both officers involved had no prior disciplinary records. The officer who fired the shots, Novak, was 26 years old and placed on administrative leave immediately following the incident. Investigators later claimed that Jones, a convicted felon, was armed with a loaded handgun at the time of the encounter.

What happens moving forward?

In a statement issued Wednesday, Akron Mayor Shammas Malik said “a thorough internal investigation” would be conducted by the Akron Police Department to see if any policies or procedural guidelines were violated during Jones’s arrest.

Akron Councilman at Large Eric D. Garrett Sr. also commented on the verdict, stating that he was “deeply disturbed” by the decision. He revealed that Jones’s family is considering moving forward with a civil suit. He claimed Jones “never brandished a weapon” during his encounter with the officers.

“The firearm was later found in the back after he was shot and killed, reportedly taken from his pocket and placed on the front seat,” he said, News 5 Cleveland reported. “This process reopens wounds for the family every single day. The trauma of losing a loved one in such a violent and public way is devastating, and it is made worse when justice feels out of reach. My hope is that the civil suit will bring forth the full truth and provide some measure of justice for the Jones family.”

In a statement shared exclusively with NewsOne, Bobby DiCello, the attorney for the Jones family, said relatives were “grieving” the difficult decision.

“This case should remind all residents of Northeast Ohio that the law favors police officers. The family of Michael Jones believes it is actually impossible to view the video footage in this case and conclude that he was not murdered. The family is grieving this decision, and they thank all who have expressed support for Michael.”

Tragically, Akron has experienced this type of injustice before. The city is where officers involved in the 2022 shooting of 25-year-old Jayland Walker were cleared of wrongdoing. In 2023, a grand jury declined to indict the officers, ruling that their use of force was legally justified.

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