An Akron man pleaded guilty on Monday, October 26, to crashing into a parked police cruiser and injuring two Akron officers, the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office announced. Jjamall Williams, 51, pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular assault and one count of driving under suspension on the same day his trial was scheduled to begin.
The crash happened in September 2021 on East Archwood Avenue in Akron. Prosecutors said Williams was driving at a high speed with a suspended driver’s license when he struck the back of a parked police cruiser, pushing it into a second parked cruiser. Williams’ vehicle then veered left and struck an officer who was standing nearby.
That officer was treated through multiple surgeries for broken legs and ribs. He survived, but prosecutors said he was never able to return to work as a police officer. A second officer, seated inside the first cruiser, suffered a severe concussion in the impact and returned to duty 14 months later.
Williams is represented by attorney Wesley Johnston. His case is before Summit County Common Pleas Court Judge Tammy O’Brien, who accepted the plea on Monday. The guilty plea resolves the case without the trial that had been set to start the same day.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for November 19, 2026, at 1:30 p.m. The court will determine Williams’ sentence on the vehicular assault counts and the driving under suspension charge at that hearing, where the injured officers and the prosecutor’s office can address the court.
The case has remained a reference point in Akron for the risks officers face during roadside duties, when parked cruisers and standing officers are exposed to passing traffic. Prosecutors framed the plea as accountability for a crash that ended one officer’s career and sidelined another for more than a year.
Vehicular assault cases involving injured officers are prosecuted under Ohio law that treats serious harm to public safety workers as a grave offense, and the facts here — a suspended license, high speed and two cruisers struck in sequence — formed the core of the state’s case. With the plea entered, the focus now shifts entirely to the November sentencing, where the court will weigh the permanent injuries the crash caused.