Biography
Katelynn Bolinger, an approximately 23-year-old resident of Akron, Ohio, was arrested by the Akron Police Department on July 4, 2022, during protests in downtown Akron following the police killing of Jayland Walker — a 25-year-old Black man shot 60 times by eight Akron officers on June 27, 2022. She was charged with three misdemeanor offenses: Riot (ORC 2917.03), Failure to Disperse (ORC 2917.04), and Disorderly Conduct (ORC 2917.11). More than 40 demonstrators were arrested during the July 2022 Akron protests, and all those arrested were deliberately transported to the Stark County Jail in Canton, approximately 30 miles from Akron — a tactic authorities used to isolate protesters from community supporters and complicate bail efforts. All arrestees spent roughly one to two days in custody before arraignment and release, with the Akron Municipal Court closed July 4, further delaying proceedings. Bolinger is not among the 24 named plaintiffs in the subsequent federal civil rights lawsuit, but that lawsuit represented only a portion of the 40+ people arrested. The City of Akron later settled that lawsuit for $747,000, with the complaint documenting that officers conducted baseless mass arrests and used tear gas and beatings against peaceful demonstrators. Of the 62 total criminal cases arising from the Jayland Walker protests, more than 60% were dismissed outright, with additional acquittals at trial. Her individual case disposition could not be confirmed from publicly available sources. The framing of these protests as "BLM riots" by the far-right doxxing site antifawatch.net misrepresents what were demonstrations against racially discriminatory police violence.
