One August evening ten years ago, a young black man was shopping at a Walmart in Beavercreek, east of Dayton. He was talking on the phone and holding an air rifle that he had taken from a store display.

Another customer thought it was a loaded gun and called the police. Two police officers arrived at the store. They shot John Crawford III in the pet food section.

At a memorial service this year, Crawford’s father, John Crawford Jr., said racism and prejudice played a role in the shooting.

“Demonism has shown itself, it has shown its face,” he said. “And that is why my son, my child is no longer here.”

Days after Crawford’s death, police in Ferguson, Missouri, killed another young black man: Michael Brown. His death helped launch the Black Lives Matter movement, sparked nationwide protests, and ignited a national debate about police reform.

In the decade since then, the country has seen the deaths of many more black men at the hands of police, including Tamir Rice, Samuel DeBose, Andre Hill and Jayland Walker, all killed in Ohio.

Julio Mateo, producer of WYSO Community Voices, produced a radio documentary about the decade since Crawford’s murder. He spoke to the Ohio Newsroom about his findings.

This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

On the community reaction to Crawford’s death

“I think most activists and family members generally felt that there was no accountability for the killing of John Crawford III. Ten years ago, there was a big movement demanding more transparency and giving the public more insight into what actually happened than the police and the prosecutor were revealing. After that, there were a lot of calls for accountability for the city, the police and the 911 caller.”

“There was also a strong desire to keep the memory of John Crawford III alive. (His family endowed) a scholarship in his name to support college students. And there were attempts to petition the city of Beavercreek to change the street name at the Walmart to John H. Crawford III Way.”

Why Crawford’s death was overshadowed by Michael Brown

“I think there are several factors. One factor was the fact that there was video of Michael Brown’s murder. (After police killed John Crawford III) there were calls to release the surveillance videos so everyone could see what happened. But until that happened, most of the communication, most of what people heard, was presented by the media. Initially, Crawford was portrayed as a suspect. There was a lot of confusion about what actually happened.”

“Another thing that I think impacts the national attention that Michael Brown is getting is that there have been some spectacular, pretty outrageous incidents one after the other. I think that was a turning point that led to more nationwide protests. Before John Crawford III was killed, there was Eric Garner in New York who said he couldn’t breathe when he was being choked to death by police. And then there was Michael Brown a few weeks later. So I think that also contributes to Michael Brown being a catalyst or a spark for the (Black Lives Matter) movement.”

What has changed in the last decade

“After the murders of John Crawford III and Tamir Rice, both of whom were linked to possession of a toy gun in Ohio, there were some attempts to develop guidelines for training or for (improving) community-police relations at the state level.”

“I think when you look at incidents where people are killed by police, the reactions and the script overall are still a little bit similar. And I think that’s problematic. There’s a tendency to withhold information from the public and argue that you have to let the process go through without the public actually knowing what happened until the verdict is announced.”

About progress

“In the city of Dayton, particularly after the death of George Floyd and the local protests against police actions, there was a police reform process. That resulted in about 142 recommendations that the community was involved in drafting. And I would say at least some of those have been implemented in ways that I think have been helpful. One that comes to mind is the Mediation Response Unit and the creation of an alternative response for non-violent calls. I think that’s a positive development that reduces contact with police in contexts where risky, potentially deadly situations can arise. But some of the recommendations, more in the area of ​​accountability and oversight, have been implemented in ways that I think have weakened their impact and rendered them almost ineffective.”