Bodycam shows Akron officer shooting teen with fake gun
By: The City of Akron and the Akron Police Department released police body camera video of an officer shooting a teenager in Akron on April 1.
The officer responded to a report of a man with a gun who was pointing it at houses.
The body camera video shows what happened as Officer Ryan Westlake arrived on the scene at Brittain Road and Ottawa.
“Where are you coming from?” you can hear Officer Westlake say on the video.
“Can I see your hands?” he says, as the teen yells out, “It’s fake, it’s fake, it’s fake!”
The officer then says, “Shots fired.”
The video shows the teen on the ground being handcuffed and bleeding from the shooting.
Police later learned that the gun was indeed a fake.
The boy involved is 15 years old. He has not been identified. Police have not updated his condition.
The Akron mayor’s office Monday released Officer Westlake’s personnel file along with the video.
“The officer’s file includes a number of disciplinary actions and use of force incidents, one of which has been deemed unreasonable,” the city said in a press release.
“In an effort to be as transparent as possible, we are releasing both the body camera footage showing the officer’s entire interaction with the adolescent who was shot, and the officer’s personnel file,” said Mayor Shammas Malik. “We will continue to be transparent and communicative as the process unfolds.”
The officer is a 9-year veteran of the department