Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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10 UCW JANUARY 19 - JANUARY 25, 2022 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM e death of a local Black man on Jan. 8 by an off-duty Cumberland County Sheriff 's Deputy has sparked questions, outrage, and national at- tention. e incident e shooting took place on Jan. 8 off Bingham Drive and Shenandoah Drive shortly after 2:15 p.m. According to initial reports from the Fayetteville Police Department, 37-year-old Jason Walker allegedly ran into traffic along Bingham Drive and jumped on a moving vehicle. FPD states that the driver, the off-duty deputy, shot Walker and then called 911. e deputy, Lt. Jeffrey Hash, told the 911 operator that Walker jumped on his car and broke the windshield. "I was driving down the road, and he came flying across Bingham Drive running. I stopped so I wouldn't hit him, and he jumped on my car and started screaming, pulled my wind- shield wipers off to try to beat my windshield and broke my windshield. I had my wife and my daughter in my vehicle," Hash told the 911 operator. When the 911 operator asks if Walker was breathing, Hash replies that Walker "was gone." A woman can be heard in the background trying to aid Walker on the call. Hash tells the 911 operator that she is a trauma nurse. e opera- tor and nurse repeatedly ask Hash to identify where he shot Walker. "I don't know. He was on the front of my vehicle. He jumped on my car," Hash can be heard telling the nurse. "I don't care about that," the woman can be heard telling Hash. "Where is the entry point?" "I do not know," Hash said. e 911 operator tells Hash not to engage with anyone else at the scene and stay on the line until the officers arrive. Body-camera footage was released showing officer interviews with wit- nesses at the scene of the shooting. One man says he saw Walker jump on Hash's vehicle. "at fellow [Walker] jumped up on the hood, and he [Hash] got out of his car and shot him," the man told the officer. Walker's father, also on the scene, tells officers that he told Walker to come back to the sidewalk after Walker ran across the road. Walker was running back to his father when Hash drove up. "He was in the dang-on street when that fellow pulled up. He jumped up on the guy's hood, and the guy [Hash] jumped out and starts shooting him," Walker's father tells police. e father then points out the windshield wipers and says Walker hit the windshield with the wiper, which Hash explained had been removed from the vehicle by Walker. e officer asked if Walker had any mental or medical issues, but Walker's father says he did not. Elizabeth Ricks, who held a shirt to Walker's wounds before he passed, and her partner, Chase Sorrell, who videotaped the aftermath of the shoot- ing, both tell officers they did not see what happened before the shooting. Ricks tells the officer that Walker was on the ground when Hash got out and shot Walker. Authorities collected the gun used in the shooting for evidence. e number and location of the gunshot wounds are being withheld, but witnesses on the scene said that Hash shot Walker at least twice. Hash has not been charged with any crimes but has been put on admin- istrative leave by the Cumberland County Sheriff 's Office pending an internal investigation. e investigation e North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation took over the investiga- tion on Jan. 8, and the FBI is assessing the case for civil rights violations. District Attorney Billy West has asked the NCSBI to relinquish all files to N.C. Conference of District Attor- neys after the investigation is conclud- ed. Police Chief Gina Hawkins and West held a press conference on Jan. 9 to clarify details of the incident. Hawkins said the truck's black box did not record any impact with "any person or thing." Hawkins also clari- fied that the shots did not go through the windshield. However, they found one of the truck's windshield wip- ers was ripped off, and the truck's windshield had sustained damage in multiple places. Family members and activists respond Rallies, marches and protests have been held in Fayetteville multiple nights since the death of Walker. ese protests, mainly organized by Fayetteville PACT and the Fayetteville Activist Movement, have been held in Downtown Fayetteville. One person's voice, Elizabeth Ricks, was resounding in early protests. Ricks is the woman who held a t-shirt to Walker's wounds after Hash shot him and who can be heard on the 911 calls. At a protest on Jan. 9, Ricks said that she didn't see Walker jump onto the vehicle. "[Walker] was hit. He was trying to go home. He was trying to go across the street to his family," Ricks said at the rally. "You can't tell me anything else. I saw what I saw." However, Hawkins has asserted Ricks' latest statements contradict the statements she made to officers at the scene. Hawkins also stated that Sorrell and Ricks have not made a formal statement to the NCSBI or turned in the video posted online. Fayetteville PACT demands include: Hash receives no pay while on admin- istrative leave, Hash be charged with murder, the Department of Justice conducts an investigation, Hawkins be fired, West be relieved of command, and the NCSBI to release a full report. Ben Crump, a nationally known civil rights attorney who represented the family of George Floyd, is now repre- senting Walker's family. Last urs- day, Jan. 13, he was in Fayetteville; he spoke at Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church. "All we're asking for is the truth. It is not lost on me that when Jason Walker was shot multiple times, he was close to home," Crump said. Walker's parents and brother spoke at the rally with Crump as well. ey talked about how Walker was a single father to a 14-year-old boy and how close he was with his son. "Jason was a goodhearted person," Walker's brother, Marlowe Walker, said. He spoke about Walker's love of gardening, music, fishing, landscaping and working on computers. Walker's parents thanked the com- munity for showing up for their son and their prayers. Crump said the NCSBI had not con- tacted Walker's family. Local officials respond On Jan. 10, City Council unani- mously approved a resolution to draft and send a letter to Eastern District U.S. Attorney Michael Easley regard- ing the investigation. Mayor Mitch Colvin released a statement on Jan. 11 saying that every- one must come together as a city. "As a City, we must continue to come together, help one another, and look out for those in need. As we battle with the strains from the pandemic along with the financial and emotion- al hardships it has caused, we must not resort to violence in any capacity and at any point," Colvin's statement read. "My hope is that the justice sys- tem conducts a full and thorough in- vestigation and parties responsible are prosecuted to the fullest extent so our community can heal and come together as one Fayetteville, as one Cumberland County." Councilwomen Courtney Banks- McLaughlin, Shakeyla Ingram and Yvonne Kinston released a joint statement of their own extending their condolences to the Walker family and asserting the importance of transpar- ency in the case. "We want to strongly reflect and ensure to our citizens that we are responding to their concerns on these tragic events, and our hearts ache with you as we are not only leaders of this city, but neighbors that live in this city with you. We all are doing our job to ensure all answers and evidence are presented and will support the [N.C.] SBI in any way we can during this investigation as they are now the lead investigators," their statement said. In a press release last Friday, Jan. 14, Jodi Phelps, the Corporate Com- munications Director for the City of Fayetteville, stated the hope is to release more footage of the on-scene investigation before the NCSBI took it over. "e footage released today is only a few minutes long and represents the first videos we submitted to the judge. However, the city has filed a petition to have all of the body cam footage released, which encompasses about 20 hours of video. Staff will be working as expeditiously as possible to review that video and submit it for the judge's consideration." NCSBI asks that anyone who wit- nessed the incident, knows of anyone who witnessed the incident or has video of the incident before, during or after, should contact the NCSBI South- eastern District office at 910-778-5724 during business hours or call 1-800- 334-3000 after business hours. The death of Jason Walker, city's response, state investigation by HANNAH LEE NEWS HANNAH LEE, Assistant Editor. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910-484-6200. Jason Walker and his 13-year-old son