星空无限传媒

漏 2025 星空无限传媒
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Monday marks 10 years since police shot, killed John Crawford III at Dayton-area Walmart

A man wearing a white shirt and black tie holds a microphone and a yellow piece of paper. He's standing by the side of a road.
Chris Welter
/
WYSO
John Crawford Jr. shares memories of his late son at a memorial in 2021 outside the Beavercreek Walmart. Crawford III was shot by police inside the store ten years ago.

Monday marks 10 years since a Beavercreek police officer shot and killed John Crawford III on Aug. 5, 2014, inside the Walmart at Fairfield Crossing.

Crawford, a 22-year-old father of two, was sold in the store.

As he wandered the aisles, a shopper named . Within minutes, two officers arrived and Beavercreek Officer Sean Williams took two shots at Crawford in a matter of seconds after seeing him. Crawford was Black and Williams is white.

Several days later, police killed another young, unarmed Black man named Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, leading to a series of uprisings that became known as the Black Lives Matter movement.

. The city of Beavercreek reached a $1.7 million settlement with Crawford鈥檚 family in 2020.

The city admitted no wrongdoing and stated at the time of the settlement, 鈥渢hey remain confident that the actions taken by their police officers that day were appropriate based on the information available at the time.鈥

Local residents will recognize the 10-year anniversary of John Crawford III鈥檚 death with a memorial outside of the Walmart in Beavercreek, and an event at 7 p.m. in Yellow Springs featuring Crawford鈥檚 father, John Crawford Jr.

WYSO will air a locally produced hour long audio documentary called "A matter of impact: A look back to the decade since John Crawford was killed" at 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug.10, during our program.

(he/they/ze) is an independent journalist based in Durham, North Carolina, and the author and creator of The View from Somewhere book and podcast. He鈥檚 currently a Ford Global Fellow, and the Abolition Journalism Fellow with Interrupting Criminalization. His first full time job in radio was at WYSO in 2013, where his work on the Affordable Care Act, WYSO Curious, and the Black Lives Matter movement won multiple state and national awards. Lewis is white and transgender, born and raised in the Midwest with deep roots in the South.