Testimony heard in shooting death

By Ed Runyan

At the end of the hearing, the judge referred a weapons charge to the grand jury.

WARREN — The night Ahmaze D. King was shot to death, Taemarr L. Walker and a woman were sitting on a couch inside a Lancer Court Northwest apartment when Walker told her to “go in the kitchen and stay there,” moments before gunfire erupted.

King, 26, of Lener Avenue Southwest, was later found dead in the doorway of the apartment. He had been shot four times, including in the head.

Those details and others from the Jan. 18 shooting emerged during testimony Wednesday in Warren Municipal Court. Much of the information came from the woman who had been inside the apartment, Detective Wayne Mackey of the Warren Police Department said.

The woman had permission to stay at the apartment, and Walker, 19, of Jackson Street Southwest, was with her, Mackey said.

A little before 11 p.m., after Walker told the woman to leave the couch, she heard someone come in the front door, say two words, including a derogatory name for black people, “and then there was an exchange of gunfire,” Mackey said.

Mackey has said Walker is a “person of interest” in King’s death, but Walker has not been charged with shooting King.

Mackey said charges related to the shooting are pending results of lab tests on two handguns. One was recovered near King’s body, and the other was found in the snow along the “flight path” police believe Walker took near the Austin Village Plaza after the shooting, Mackey said.

Police also did a residue test on Walker’s hands to determine whether he fired one of the guns, Mackey testified.

Police did charge Walker with having weapons under disability just after Walker was released from Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital for two gunshot wounds, the most serious of which was a bullet that went in and back out of his chest.

Weapons under disability is a charge that means police believe Walker possessed a firearm that night — something he’s not allowed to do because of a previous Trumbull County indictment on felony drug charges.

Under questioning by Traci Timko Rose, an assistant Warren law director, Mackey said a phone was found in the Lancer Court apartment that police believe belonged to Walker.

In the phone was a picture of a gun similar to the one found in the snow, Mackey said.

“It is clear that Mr. Walker fired a gun that night,” Timko-Rose said in a closing argument, while James Lewis, a public defender representing Walker, called the evidence linking Walker to the gun “extremely tenuous.”

At the end of testimony, Judge Ivanchak ruled that there was probable cause to bind over the weapons charge to a Trumbull County grand jury. He also set Walker’s bond at $250,000.

During Walker’s arraignment last week, Judge Ivanchak ordered Walker held without eligibility to make bond.

Police initially responded to the Deer Run apartments on nearby Commerce Street because someone was knocking on doors there saying he had been shot.

When they arrived, police followed footprints in the snow leading to the nearby Lancer Court apartments, where an officer located King’s body.

Security in the courtroom was heavy as Walker made a personal appearance in his jail coveralls.

Walker’s mother reported to police that the outside of the home she shared with Walker had been hit by gunfire about 1 a.m. Jan. 19 — about two hours after police found King’s body.

runyan@vindy.com