John Crawford III was a 22-year-old African American man killed in a Walmart store in Beavercreek, Ohio, on August 5, 2014. A few months later, on November 22, 2014, Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African American boy, was killed outside a Cleveland recreation center.

Both of these tragic deaths were the results of officer-involved shootings, and they sparked polarizing, contentious responses from concerned citizens across Ohio and around the United States.