(SEOUL, South Korea) — North Korea test-fired six missiles on Thursday, a day after launching its most tests in a single day.
One long-range and two short-range ballistic missiles were tested Thursday morning, South Korean officials said. Tokyo initially said the longer-range ballistic missile had flown over Japan, warning residents of Miyagi, Yamagata and Niigata prefectures to take shelter. But Japan’s Defense Ministry later said the missile did not fly over Japan.
Authorities said they were still analyzing the details. Analysts suggested that the missile, which flew 472 miles and reached a height of 1,200 miles, was presumably an intercontinental ballistic missile that failed.
Three more short-range ballistic missiles were launched Thursday night, according to the South Korea Joint Chiefs of Staff. The missiles were fired toward the eastern seas from North Hwanghae province between 9:35 p.m. and 9:49 p.m. local time.
“We can sense North Korea’s anxiety from recent launches. In fact, these missile launches are a huge burden for their military, especially when North Korea is so economically cut off,” Park Won-gon, professor of North Korean Studies at Ewha Womans University, told ABC News.
The provocations are a typical brinkmanship tactic to either bring the U.S. and South Korea into nuclear talks or a prelude to justifying an imminent seventh nuclear underground test.
“It’s possible to assume that North Korea will decorate the grand finale of its tactic with the seventh nuclear test, and then suggest a deal,” said Park.
The two Koreas test-fired missiles one after another throughout Wednesday in a series of tit-for-tat moves. North Korea fired a total of 23 missiles that were a combination of ballistic and surface-to-air weapons, and 100 artillery shells from various locations toward the east and west. In a retaliatory move, South Korea quickly responded in between by launching its own air-to-surface missiles into a similar area above the NLL, launched by two F-15K and KF-16 jet fighters.
Pyongyang claimed the missile tests are “self-defensive” in nature. Officials called for the U.S. and South Korea to stop their annual joint military drills, which they said were “aggressive and provocative.”
“They are going on a full-scale sprint. Not only are there a variety of missiles, but also a great number of them,” Park added.
Dr. Yang Uk, of Seoul-based Asan Institute, told ABC News that the missile launches are a way to show off Pyongyang’s tactical nuclear capabilities.
“It’s an adamant statement that they will respond with all forces by fully mobilizing all the means they have,” Yang explained.
South Korea’s air force announced Wednesday shortly after North Korea’s ballistic missile provocation, that the joint air drill between the U.S. will be extended. It was originally planned for five days from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4.
Interpol has premiered the video for “Passenger,” a track off their new album, The Other Side of Make-Believe.
The clip was animated and directed by a fan named Jamie McDonald. After McDonald posted the video on Interpol’s social media, the “Evil” outfit asked if they could officially release it.
“The idea behind the music video visually, is that of a fever dream,” McDonald says. “We’re exploring the subconscious, delving into dreams, and delving even deeper into nightmares. This is really a passion project for me.”
You can watch the “Passenger” video streaming now on YouTube.
The Other Side of Make-Believe, the seventh Interpol album, dropped in July. After a U.S. run with Spoon over the summer, Interpol will continue touring in support of The Other Side of Make-Believe, with South American dates alongside Arctic Monkeys throughout November.
Killswitch Engage frontman Jesse Leach guests on a new song called “Ancestry” from August Burns Red.
“I loved this song in every phase since its inception,” says ABR guitarist JB Brubaker. “From the instrumental rendition, to the lyrics and vocals being added, to finally bringing it all together with Jesse’s anthemic guest vocals, ‘Ancestry’ is a song we’ve been looking forward to sharing with the world for a long time.”
Leach is also featured in the accompanying “Ancestry” video, which is streaming now on YouTube.
“Ancestry” will appear on the upcoming August Burns Red album Death Below, due out March 24, 2023. The record also includes a collaboration with Underoath‘s Spencer Chamberlain.
Leach, meanwhile, just lent his voice to a new Anti-Flag song called “Modern Meta Medicine,” which dropped in October. Killswitch Engage’s most recent album is 2019’s Atonement.
(NEW YORK) — A man is accused of posing as a Stanford University student and living in at least five different dorms on campus for nearly a year, the university’s newspaper, The Stanford Daily, reported.
William Curry allegedly presented himself as a Stanford student on various social media profiles, including Instagram and a dating app.
“He had a whole Instagram page that many of my friends had already followed, that said he was Stanford class of ’25 … that he transferred from Duke,” student Kacey Logan said.
“He certainly was not a person who was just making do on Stanford’s campus, living off of the excesses,” Theo Baker, a writer at The Stanford Daily, told ABC News. “He was a part of this community. He was living alongside people and very much interacting with them on a day-to-day basis.”
Stanford told ABC News that Curry was cited for violating the law and removed from campus in December 2021. But according to the Daily, he returned several times, each time with a new story.
Stanford said, despite attempts to cite him for trespass, they weren’t able to locate Curry until last week. Curry was caught living in the basement of Stanford’s Crothers Hall last week and was issued a “stay away” order.
When asked by The Stanford Daily what he was doing on campus, Curry said he was “living the normal Stanford life, you know, socializing, you know, meeting people, as you do in college.”
Stanford told ABC News some staff members in dorms where Curry was seen were notified. But Stanford didn’t have a broad communication system in place, which allowed him to move to other locations.
Stanford told ABC News in a statement, “While Stanford has protocols and policies in place to prevent non-students from entering and living in our residences, the unique aspects of this case and Mr. Curry’s persistence and ability to ingratiate himself with our student community have made it clear that gaps exist in those protocols.”
Stanford said it’s reviewing its procedures.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office is reviewing the case, but no charges have been filed.
(WASHINGTON) — Despite not being a candidate, Donald Trump is looming large this midterm election cycle, but what difference he’s making won’t be clearer until Election Day or soon after.
The former president’s approval rating among Republicans remains high — even as he faces multiple investigations and the fallout from the Jan. 6 hearings — with 64% of registered GOP voters saying Trump should have a good or great deal of influence over the future direction of the party, according to an ABC News and Ipsos poll.
Trump acolytes appear up and down the ballot in congressional and statewide races, including nearly 200 individuals who support and spread his election denialism.
“Although Donald Trump is not on the ballot this year, the Trump political brand is and it continues to show great durability and effectiveness,” Mark Weaver, a veteran Republican strategist, told ABC News. Trump-backed candidates, Weaver noted, often similarly push back against elites and embrace his off-script, bullying demeanor.
This final campaign week, Trump is holding a blitz of rallies in swing states to fire up the Republican base. He will appear in Florida, Iowa, Ohio and Pennsylvania. And a super PAC backed by Trump has spent at least $8.6 million on ads in battleground states, though the spending hasn’t been nearly as much as other Republican groups have invested this cycle.
Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington told ABC News that Trump’s endorsements are having “an incredible impact on the midterms.”
“Across the country, Republicans have benefited from President Trump’s rallies, financial support, and leadership,” Harrington said.
But will Trump’s impact ultimately help or hurt the GOP?
Trump helped to shape the GOP midterm field during the primaries, and often touts his endorsements at rallies. Now, the question is whether his influence will help or hinder the Republican Party’s chances of taking back control of Congress.
“This is the year we’re going to take back the House,” Trump said at Texas rally in late October. “We’re going to take back the Senate. We’re going to take back America.”
In some cases, Trump’s picks drove more moderate Republican incumbents off the ballot — like Rep. Liz Cheney’s loss to Harriet Hageman in Wyoming, or Kari Lake’s defeat of Karrin Taylor Robson in Arizona’s gubernatorial primary.
And his endorsements haven’t always been celebrated by Republican leadership in their quest to take back control of Congress. Among his more controversial picks are former football star Herschel Walker in Georgia and celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania. Despite encouraging Walker to run for office, clearing the field of any serious Republican challengers, Trump hasn’t set foot in Georgia in this final campaign stretch, while Walker has limited his talk of the former president in as he makes his case to voters.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has questioned the “candidate quality” of some Republicans running as he’s tempered expectations that the GOP will win back control of the chamber. While McConnell didn’t mention Trump or any candidates by name, the former president shot back at McConnell, calling him a “hack politician.”
“A number of Senate candidates in swing states owe their nominations to Donald Trump,” Bill Galston, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, told ABC News. “That’s certainly true in Pennsylvania. It’s true in Arizona. It’s true in Georgia.”
Those three states could ultimately determine which party controls the Senate next year, and FiveThirtyEight polling averages show each of those races separated by 3 points or less.
Elections observers have voiced concern that in some races, a more moderate candidate might’ve been faring better in the general election than Trump’s more divisive pick.
In Ohio — a state Trump won by 8 percentage points in 2020 — his Senate pick, J.D. Vance, is leading by just 2 percentage points, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average, and has often traded leads with Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan.
“Everyone can imagine that a generic Republican might be doing stronger than that,” Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, told ABC News. “A number of [Trump’s] more controversial choices will win, and a number will likely lose.”
Some Trump-backed candidates are trying to pivot to more moderate stances for the upcoming general election after adopting extreme positions in the primary seasons.
New Hampshire’s Don Bolduc, the Republican nominee for Senate, was a gung-ho election denier in the primary race but shifted his stance completely for the general election, telling Fox News in September he’s come to the conclusion the 2020 race “was not stolen.”
“Republicans in the post mortem will judge Trump’s impact largely by looking at how his Senate candidates fare,” Galston continued. “If Republicans fail to recapture or hold a majority in the Senate, I think a lot of them will say that is Trump’s fault.”
Polling, and historical trends, generally points to a Republican takeover of the House this cycle while the Senate is more in flux. According to FiveThirtyEight’s forecast, it’s a dead heat for control of the upper chamber.
Looking ahead to 2024
Trump’s actions in the midterms, his first test race since he left office, are all happening against a 2024 backdrop.
The former president is consistently suggesting he will run again for the presidency, telling the crowd at the Texas rally last month he’ll “probably have to do it again” to make the country “successful, safe and glorious again.”
“If Trump-allied Republicans are defeated in winnable races in swing states, that will have an impact on the 2024 conversation,” said Galston.
But if his endorsed candidates fare well, it could boost his profile even further in the GOP.
A host of other potential 2024 contenders are making their presence known this midterm cycle.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin was in Arizona campaigning for Lake and other Republicans. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, widely considered to be one of Trump’s biggest competitors, has appeared at events in Kansas, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Trump will be in Florida on Nov. 6 to stump for Sen. Marco Rubio, but will notably not appear alongside DeSantis.
In a September ABC News poll, Republicans and GOP-leaning independents were split 47%-46% on whether Trump should be their 2024 nominee — a 20-point drop for Trump since his 2020 nomination.
(WASHINGTON) — About half the country has banned abortion sometime before viability and at least 14 states have ceased nearly all abortion services, since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending federal protections for abortion rights.
Recent polling suggests this is not in line with the stance of the majority of Americans. According to a recent survey by Pew Research, 62% of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
Data from a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll shows that about 6 in 10 Americans (61%) think abortion should be legal in all or most cases versus only 37% who think it should be illegal.
In the months since Roe was overturned, pro-abortion groups have focused on establishing abortion as a right under state constitutions.
In the first state-level test since Roe, Kansas voters decided to preserve access to abortion in an Aug. 2 election. This November, voters in five states, California, Vermont, Michigan, Montana and Kentucky, have abortion-related questions on the ballot.
While abortion is already banned in Kentucky, a conservative initiative that seeks to amend the state constitution to explicitly state that there is no constitutional right to abortion, will be on the ballot on Nov. 8.
If the ballot initiative — known as Amendment 2 — passes, “Kentucky will be just another state where abortion is illegal in all cases and women have to leave the state [and] travel great distances in order to get the care that they need,” Rachel Sweet, campaign manager at Protect Kentucky Access — an abortion rights advocacy group — told ABC News in an interview.
If the initiative passes and abortion rights are challenged in state court, any abortion-related legislation passed by lawmakers would be examined based on the merits of that legislation, Addia Wuchner, executive director of anti-abortion group Kentucky Right to Life, told ABC News in an interview.
Wuchner contends that the amendment on the ballot would not enshrine any policy into law and would allow lawmakers to pass legislation either way the pendulum swings. But, she also said, “Kentucky has a history of being pro-life [and] pro-family.”
Adding, “[T]here’s not a right in our constitution to terminate the life of another person.”
Even before abortions were banned in Kentucky, access was limited with only two abortion clinics in the state. In 2021, those clinics performed about 4,400 abortions, most of which were within the first several weeks after fertilization, according to a report from Kentucky Public Health.
Since Roe was overturned, 66 clinics across 15 states have stopped offering abortion services, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Some Americans are now at an 800-mile drive away from their nearest abortion clinic, according to data gathered by the Myers Abortion Facility Database.
Clinics across the U.S. provided 10,000 fewer abortions in the first few months after Roe was overturned, according to data gathered by #WeCount/Society of Family Planning..
Sweet said she has heard stories from people about their experiences with abortions or pregnancy loss, which she says have kept her going. Since Roe was overturned, Sweet also said she has seen people who have never canvassed or knocked on doors before sign up to talk to their neighbors about abortion rights, saying “they are ready and raring to go.”
About 20 abortion transport volunteers with an abortion rights group called the Kentucky Health Justice Network are driving Kentucky patients, who have no way of getting to clinics or can’t afford to travel for care, to out-of-state clinics. Patients are often referred to the group by out-of-state abortion clinics, where there are often few appointments and long wait times.
“The longest drive I personally have done was to Asheville, North Carolina, which is about a six-hour drive from Louisville each way,” Anastasia, a Kentucky Health Justice Network volunteer who asked that only her first name be used, told ABC News in an interview.
For that drive, she said she got up at around 2:30 a.m. that day and was home around 7 p.m.
“It’s satisfying in the sense that I’m helping someone in a very practical, visible way. But also … frustration that this type of help is necessary,” she said.
Despite the flux in the status of abortion access in many states, activists say their determination is unwavering.
“We’re all learning this together. I think that every week we learn something new, and every week something else changes. So I think that it’s been difficult for all of us to tread these waters. But I think that we’re all dedicated to our mission,” Savannah Trebuna, the abortion fund program director at the Kentucky Health Justice Network, told ABC News.
“The fact of the matter is, a person who does not want to be pregnant should have the option to not be pregnant,” Trebuna added.
After becoming the first artist to claim the entire top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, Taylor Swift is dominating the Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart, as well. She has claimed the entire top 13 on that song chart with tracks from her latest album, Midnights. This feat is second only to Drake, who claimed the entire top 14 on the Streaming Songs chart with songs from Certified Lover Boy in 2021.
Christina Perri posted an adorable new photo of her 4-year-old daughter, Carmella, cradling her new baby sister, Pixie Rose. “brb never gonna recover from this photo,” Christina wrote. “our libra pixie girl has brought balance to our family and she knows it.”
Disney+ is giving us a taste of Pentatonix’s new holiday special. The first trailer was released for Pentatonix: Around the World for the Holidays, which airs December 2. Disney is the parent company of ABC News.
Johnny Depp is making an appearance in Rihanna‘s Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 4, airing on Prime Video on November 9. TMZ first reported his surprise appearance and ABC Audio has confirmed it. As previously reported, the lineup also includes performances by Anitta, Burna Boy, Don Toliver and Maxwell, as well as appearances from celebrities like Taraji P. Henson, model and actress Cara Delevingne, Emmy winner Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Marvel Cinematic Universe actors Simu Liu and Winston Duke.
Tate McRae and Tiësto have teamed up with Dubai’s new luxury resort Atlantis The Royal to release a song called “10:35.” The video for the track features the two artists performing all throughout the resort.
After becoming the first artist to claim the entire top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, Taylor Swift is dominating the Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart, as well. She has claimed the entire top 13 on that song chart with tracks from her latest album, Midnights. This feat is second only to Drake, who claimed the entire top 14 on the Streaming Songs chart with songs from Certified Lover Boy in 2021.
Christina Perri posted an adorable new photo of her 4-year-old daughter, Carmella, cradling her new baby sister, Pixie Rose. “brb never gonna recover from this photo,” Christina wrote. “our libra pixie girl has brought balance to our family and she knows it.”
Disney+ is giving us a taste of Pentatonix’s new holiday special. The first trailer was released for Pentatonix: Around the World for the Holidays, which airs December 2. Disney is the parent company of ABC News.
Does Cher have a new man in her life? The 76-year-old singer was spotted in Los Angeles Wednesday holding hands with 36-year-old music executive Alexander “AE” Edwards.
Joss Stone has released a new music video for her cover of the Stevie Wonder holiday classic “What Christmas Means to Me.” The song is featured on Joss’ upcoming holiday album, Merry Christmas, Love, which comes out November 11.
(LAVEEN VILLAGE, Ariz.) — Former President Barack Obama continued his crisscrossing of midterm election battlegrounds Wednesday in Arizona — hoping to turn out voters so Democrats can hold the Senate and keep election deniers out of office.
“Our democracy is on the ballot, and nowhere is that clearer than here in Arizona,” Obama said.
A crowd of thousands, of all ages and races, packed inside Cesar Chavez High School in Laveen Village, held up their phones and stomped their feet as the former president delivered a roast and a warning on what he called the Republican “cast of characters” on the ballot in Arizona.
“They have decided it’s advantageous for them to just assert that Donald Trump won the last election, and now they want control over the next election. And their argument has no basis in reality,” Obama said. “If you’ve got an election denier serving as your governor, as your senator, as your secretary of state, as your attorney general, then democracy, as we know it, may not survive in Arizona.”
To shore up support, especially for incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly and Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, the Democratic nominee for governor, Obama tailored his attack lines to their opponents, Republicans Kari Lake and Blake Masters. Both have former President Donald Trump’s endorsement and have echoed his election denialism.
“Why would you vote for somebody who you know is not telling the truth about something? I mean, on something that important. I don’t care how nicely they say it. I don’t care how poised they are or how well-lit they are,” Obama said, referring to Lake’s TV appearances.
For more from ABC News’ team of reporters embedded in battleground states, watch “Power Trip” on Hulu, with new episodes on Sunday.
Back in May 2016, when Obama was finishing his second term and Lake was still an anchor at a FOX affiliate in Phoenix, Lake interviewed him in Arizona where they discussed Senate Republicans blocking now-Attorney General Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court. “Democracy only works when people play by the rules, where everybody is fair,” Obama told her at the time.
The former president said Wednesday he doesn’t remember thinking then that “she was the kind of person” to push conspiracies.
“I guess that stuff came later because she found it convenient — because she thought, ‘Well, here’s an opportunity to get attention,'” Obama said. “Listen, if we hadn’t just elected somebody whose main qualification was being on TV, you can say, ‘Maybe give it a shot. What’s the worst that could happen?’ Well, now we know. It doesn’t just work out just because somebody’s been on TV. Turns out, being president or governor is about more than snappy lines and good lighting.”
The crowd roared.
Notably, Lake contributed to Obama’s first presidential campaign and voted for him, but attributes that now to dissatisfaction with the Republican establishment.
“Katie, she may not be flashy,” Obama said of Hobbs before an outspoken attendee disagreed. “She could have been. She just chooses not to be, because she’s serious about her work.”
Hobbs, who has faced criticism for refusing to debate Lake, has run a low-key campaign when compared to her competitor’s large-scale rallies and moderated Q&A events. But Wednesday, she took a jab at Lake in front of her largest audience yet.
“Democracy is the system that sent Barack Obama to the White House, and democracy is the system that will send Kari Lake back to whatever dark corner of the internet she came from,” Hobbs said to cheers.
Several Democrats spoke at the rally, including secretary of state candidate Adrian Fontes and attorney general candidate Kris Mayes — and one lone Republican, Mesa Mayor John Giles, an outspoken Lake critic.
“Kari Lake is playing to an audience of one. I promise you if she’s elected, she’ll spend more time traveling to Mar-a-Lago than to Mesa,” Giles said. “Likewise, Blake Masters wants to go to the Senate to represent two people: One, a billionaire in California, the other, a want-to-be billionaire former president in Florida,” he added, referring also to Peter Thiel, a Masters-mega donor.
For his part, Obama said of Masters, “If you were trying to create, in a lab, a wacky Republican politician, it’d look a lot like this guy.”
The former president also knocked the 36-year-old conservative and venture capitalist for scrubbing his website after his primary win to soften some of his stances.
“His website had all kinds of lies about how the election was stolen, then after he won the nomination, poof, vanished. Along with his extreme views on abortion, poof,” Obama said. “I mean, this guy is supposed to know tech. Does he think like people can’t track that?”
Arizona Republicans, meanwhile, were quick to dismiss Obama’s visit and note that he never carried Arizona.
“Barack Obama has never won Arizona, and the fact that he is here is a testament to the toxicity of Joe Biden that has rubbed off on Mark Kelly and Katie Hobbs,” Republican National Committee spokesperson Ben Petersen said in a statement. “This election is a referendum on Biden’s abject failure on skyrocketing inflation, open borders and violent crime.”
Masters also brushed off the former president’s criticism of him and has dismissed any notion of a post-primary pivot, likening his website changes to a run-of-the-mill update. He responded by posting a family photo to Twitter, with his wife and three small sons, and saying, “This is what Democrats like Obama think is wacky.”
Lake, meanwhile, has countered characterizations of her election denialism to say Democrats have also not conceded elections and have raised doubts in results dating back to 2000.
President Joe Biden, notably, has not visited the Grand Canyon State and has not announced plans to do so, focusing instead on Florida, Maryland, New Mexico and California. But the White House announced Thursday plans for first lady Jill Biden to campaign with Kelly in Phoenix this weekend, the final weekend before Election Day.
At the same time, Biden, Trump and Obama will all be in Pennsylvania on Saturday, a state that has seen razor-thin margins in another Senate race that could determine the balance of power in Congress.
While Obama’s appearance could be seen as coming too late since a majority of Arizonans vote early, and early voting ends Friday, voters outside the rally in South Phoenix predicted he’s the one to bring more people to the polls.
“I’m hoping he can energize us,” Ann Wood of Phoenix told ABC News. “I think every single vote counts. It was so close last time, and I just hope it makes a difference.”
“It’s never too late,” said Nancy Shubert of Sun West City. “As Democrats, we’re very, very, very hopeful.”
Libby Cathey is one of seven ABC News campaign reporters embedded in battleground states across the country. Watch all the twists and turns of covering the midterm elections every Sunday on Hulu’s “Power Trip” with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
(AKRON, Ohio) — The eight officers who fatally shot Jayland Walker, the 25-year-old Black man killed during an attempted traffic stop in Akron, Ohio, have been reinstated, according to the Akron Police Department.
Some community leaders are opposing the move, saying it will lead to “the erosion of any trust remaining between the community and police.”
The officers remain under investigation by their own department as well as the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, authorities said.
The officers were on paid administrative leave following the fatal shooting. According to ABC affiliate WEWS-TV, they were brought back on duty because to a staffing “crisis” at the department, Akron Police Chief Steve Mylett said. According to the department, the officers are on administrative duty and will not be in uniform or on patrol.
“I recognize that this decision will have an impact. And there may be some community concern, but I didn’t take this decision lightly,” Mylett told the local station. “And I think this decision is in the best interests of the citizens and businesses of Akron.”
Bishop Joey Johnson, a pastor at The House of the Lord, said that the move to reinstate the officers will cause a lot of pain in a city that’s still healing. He was one of 43 community activists and religious leaders who penned a letter dated Oct. 21 to the chief about their frustrations regarding his choice to move forward with reinstating the officers.
“The family is hurting. They’re in grieving. They are traumatized,” said Johnson. “Bringing people back before the investigation is done seems like it is bringing more pain,” Johnson said.
Mylett did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment. But on Oct. 25, he released a response letter to the Akron community, saying the decision was not made “in haste,” that he still thinks it was “the correct decision given the public safety challenges of the entire community” and stands by the decision “and his commitment to build a stronger Akron.”
The chief told the Akron Beacon Journal that he was disappointed by the letter, saying he had a “consensus” from community leaders to move forward with the reinstatement.
While community leaders figure out what next steps to take in their fight for “love and justice,” Johnson said they’re focused on being able to “move toward unity … with all parties.”
“Our priority is being able to help our community, particularly when the verdict comes out,” said Johnson. “The family is hurting. They’re in grieving. They are traumatized.”
The Walker family applauded religious leaders for their letter, and slammed Mylett for returning the officers to the department.
“It is the very definition of hypocrisy for Chief Mylett to claim, as he has previously, that his department is working hard to build trust among Akron’s minority communities, and then make a callous decision like this that fosters further distrust of the Akron Police Department among this population, while jeopardizing the legitimacy of BCI’s investigation,” read a statement from the family’s legal team.
Walker was unarmed when he was fatally shot by police on June 27 after a traffic stop turned into a pursuit. He was running away when eight officers opened fire on him, body camera footage released by the city showed.
As officers pursued Walker, officials said a flash of light seen in body camera footage appeared to be the muzzle flash of a gun coming from the driver’s side of Walker’s car.
In a second body camera video, officers are heard radioing that a shot was being fired from Walker’s car.
Later in the pursuit, Walker slowed down and jumped out of the passenger side door before it came to a full stop, according to the footage. As Walker ran away from police, several officers simultaneously fired several bullets, fatally shooting him, body camera footage released by the city showed.
He was unarmed when he was shot, but a gun was found in his car by officials.
Walker had 46 gunshot wounds on his body, according to an autopsy report conducted by the Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Walker also had injuries to his face, heart, both lungs, liver, spleen, left kidney, intestines, pelvis, iliac artery and several bones in his legs, to chief medical examiner Lisa Kohler.
His manner of death has been ruled homicide and the toxicology report showed no use of drugs nor alcohol by Walker at the time of the incident.
“The family is devastated by the findings of the report and still await a public apology from the police department,” the Walker family’s legal team said in a statement to ABC News.
