Who was Jaymeisha Beasley? Jayland Walker’s fiancée died in wreck weeks before shooting

Shalesa Beasley, center, and her family members wear an image of her daughter Jaymeisha Beasley, the fiancée of Jayland Walker, during a protest in front of the Akron Police Department at the Harold K. Stubbs Justice Center on Friday, July 1, 2022, in downtown Akron. Beasley was struck and killed by a hit-skip driver in Cincinnati in May 2022, a month before Walker’s death.

A month before Jayland Walker was shot and killed by Akron police officers, his fiancée was killed in a car crash near Cincinnati.

The eight police officers involved in Walker’s death last summer will not be criminally charged, a special grand jury decided, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said Monday.

Who was Jayland Walker’s fiancée?

 Jaymeisha Beasley, 27, was struck by a hit-skip driver on Interstate 71 near Cincinnati while traveling with her family. Walker was not with Beasley when she died.

According to NBC News, Beasley’s mother, Shalesa Beasley, said Beasley was killed in a hit-and-run on May 28 in Warren County in southwest Ohio. Shalesa Beasley told NBC News that she was traveling to Kentucky with Beasley and her other daughter when a semi rear-ended their van.

Beasley, who was asleep in the back and not wearing a seatbelt, was ejected from the van onto the highway and died after an oncoming vehicle hit her, Shalesa Beasley told NBC News.

Shalesa Beasley told NBC News that her daughter and Walker started dating when they were 15 and had gotten engaged about a year before Walker’s death, saying they were inseparable. The two had just started discussing wedding plans and were in the process of buying a home together when she died, saying Walker was “heartbroken” over her death, according to NBC News.

Grand jury decision: No criminal charges for 8 Akron officers who shot Jayland Walker

How did Jaymeisha Beasley die?

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, one person was killed and three others were injured after the crash around 1 a.m. May 28, 2022, on the southbound lanes of Interstate 71 in Warren County.

According to the Enquirer, a semi was headed south on I-71 and crashed into a van that was going at a slow speed. A passenger in the van — Jaymeisha Beasley — was thrown out of the vehicle and onto the ground, then hit by another car driving down the interstate that did not stop, the Enquirer reported.

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Did Jayland Walker commit ‘suicide by cop’?

During a virtual press conference Monday about the grand jury’s decision, Senior Assistant Attorney General Anthony Pierson said there was no evidence that Walker committed “suicide by cop” but said Walker was going through a difficult time after the recent death of his fiancée.

“I don’t want to speculate as to what Mr. Walker was thinking at the time, but I can say this, that it has been made public that Mr. Walker was going through a very tough time in his his life. I think it’s been documented that Mr. Walker’s fiancée had died a short time before this incident happened. And he was going through a very tough time. And he was hurting,” Pierson said.

Jayland Walker updates: Watch live: City of Akron holds press conference after grand jury decision

“And that night that he encountered the police, he was not acting himself. By all accounts, this was a good man, a good person with no prior criminal record, so he was not acting himself. But other than that, I’m not willing to make a leap as to his intentions on that night,” Pierson said.

According to the 227-page report from the Ohio attorney general’s office, Walker’s Google account showed searches for “what happens when you drink bleach” on May 30, “drinking bleach” on June 10 and “quickest ways to die” on June 10. His mother and sister said he showed no signs of being suicidal. The Beacon Journal is reading through the report and will post updates on what it contains.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Who was Jayland Walker’s fiancé? Jaymeisha Beasley died before shooting