A new independent review into an incident involving now-fired police officer Ryan Westlake concludes that Akron Police Department supervisors should also be investigated for how they handled the incident.

At the Akron Citizens’ Police Oversight Board’s Wednesday meeting, Independent Police Auditor Anthony Finnell shared the findings of his review into a March 1 use-of-force incident that took place at a convenience store involving Westlake and a juvenile in which Westlake is alleged to have thrown the suspect into his cruiser.

This is one of two incidents that led to Westlake’s firing May 6.

Westlake recently came under scrutiny for shooting a teen in the hand who had a fake gun on April 1. After that shooting, it was revealed Westlake, who had been an officer for nine years, was fired, then reinstated the next day and instead suspended in 2021. He has faced four other disciplinary actions and has had more than 30 use-of-force incidents, most of which were deemed reasonable by supervisors.

More: Here’s a look at Akron officer Ryan Westlake’s tumultuous history

Finnell’s recommended the APD open investigations into potential misconduct by Sergeant Timothy Shmigal, Lieutenant Kimberly Williams and Captain Kris Beitzel, and anyone else on Platoon 2 who concurred with the finding that Westlake’s actions were objectively reasonable.

The APD did not immediately respond to a request for comment made by the Akron Beacon Journal.

During the March 1 incident, Westlake responded to a convenience store for a complaint by the owner about a customer and her friends who had allegedly been stealing from him. While other officers searched for the teenage customer’s friends, Westlake handcuffed the teen and took her out to his cruiser. Westlake swung her around and she fell, landing on the pavement next to the cruiser, a surveillance video shows. He then put her in the back of his cruiser.

A police supervisor found Westlake’s actions to be reasonable, but internal affairs supervisors disagreed. Finnell said he agreed with the internal affairs supervisors’ assessment.

The police board voted to accept Finnell’s findings.

At the request of board member Bob Gippin, Finnell read a portion of the report pertaining to the discrepancy between the findings from the department’s Office of Professional Standards & Accountability (OPSA) and those of other officers.

“Reasonable people can disagree and not come to the same conclusion,” Finnell read. “The mere fact OPSA reached a different conclusion than Sergeant Shmigal and the other members of Platoon 2 that signed off on his findings does not indicate misconduct. However, where the evidence could not reasonably be found to justify Officer Westlake’s conduct, there could reasonably be an indication of misconduct by the supervisors.”

The report will be released in full to the public at 10 a.m. Thursday on the board’s website.

More: Akron fires police officer who shot teen, cites 2 other use-of-force incidents

Finnell further recommends that the department investigates the use-of-force incident as a criminal offense; that Shimgal’s use-of-force investigations from Jan. 21, 2021, through Feb. 29, 2024, be forwarded to the auditor’s office for review; and to add to Westlake’s termination decision that he violated an additional area of the department’s regulations — Section 700.03(d), which states that “no officer/employee shall knowingly make a false statement.”

After the meeting, Finnell explained Westlake’s report following the March 1 incident didn’t mention that he used force, but that successive investigations mentioned the incident, albeit in a manner that blamed the teenager for it. Finnell said surveillance video from the store tells a different story, showing clearly that Westlake threw her into the car.

He said the supervisor’s report went to great lengths to justify Westlake’s behavior.

“I believe that, at a minimum, the sergeant was trying to mitigate those actions to try to mitigate a bad situation by trying to justify,” Finnell said. “As far as the lieutenant and the captain, I don’t know how much of the evidence they looked at, but part of their responsibility, if they’re going to sign off and agree with findings, they should review some of the evidence as well.”

He said documentation indicated that Williams and Beitzel signed off on the written report, but he doesn’t know for sure whether they looked at the video evidence.

“And again, if they did, then that is that raises the question as to how could someone reasonably believed that that was an objectively reasonable use of force?” he said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Contact reporter Derek Kreider at DKreider@Gannett.com or 330-541-9413

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron’s police auditor advises probe into 3 department supervisors