Jeff Lange/USA Today Network via REUTERS
On Wednesday, Pamela Walker was poised to see her son Jayland for the first time since Akron, Ohio, cops unleashed dozens of rounds at him, killing the 25-year-old Black man after a traffic stop and setting off weeks of protests over police brutality.
The memorial for Walker began earlier Wednesday with what was billed as an open-casket viewing, drawing comparisons to Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Black boy whose grisly abduction and murder stoked the flames of the civil rights movement in the 1950s. The casket appeared to be closed when funeral proceedings began around 1 p.m.
Family lawyer Bobby DiCello told The Daily Beast this week that the Walker’s mother had been reticent to see her son because she was afraid of what he might look like.