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2 videos may be prominent in Walker murder case
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
If TaShawn “Boo” Walker’s murder case goes to trial, video may play a prominent role.
Walker, 27, is accused of killing Richard Rollison IV, 24, by shooting him seven times in the parking lot of a Sunoco gas station Oct. 26, 2013.
Walker’s defense team said in a court document that a surveillance video from the gas station shows a “shootout between several people” that resulted in Rollison’s death.
TaShawn Walker is a Warren native but was a resident of Baytown, Texas, at the time of the killing. He had come to town to attend the funeral of his brother, Taemarr Walker, 24, who had been killed in a confrontation with a Warren police officer one week earlier.
The court document says Rollison was among the people who had a gun in the Sunoco shootout, and that another man with a gun who has not been charged left the scene in Rollison’s car. Police have not discussed whether Rollison had a gun or what happened to his car.
Another video — the dash-cam video from a Warren Police Department cruiser — also may be decisive, but Walker’s defense team has argued that some of the things Rollison said on the video are not admissible at Walker’s trial, scheduled for Dec. 8.
Walker’s attorney, Lynn Maro argues that statements were being made around Rollison as he was being attended to by two passers-by who stopped to help. The conversations may have suggested that the shooting was related to Taemarr Walker’s death, Maro says.
“A review of the video raises questions of who actually raised the name of “Boo Walker” and raises questions of what name Rollison actually said,” Maro’s filing says.
Parts of the dash-cam video were played Friday during a hearing before Judge Peter Kontos in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court. Rollison could be heard telling a police officer and his father that “Boo Walker” was the man who shot him.
The witnesses said Rollison made it clear who shot him.
Robert Eckert and his girlfriend, Stephanie Finney, who both work at a Niles restaurant, said they were heading home when they saw Rollison being shot, so they pulled into the parking lot to help.
Eckert took off an outer shirt and placed it on gunshot wounds on Rollison’s stomach, while Finney placed a wash cloth on a gunshot wound of the thigh.
“It was pretty bad. He had blood all over him,” Eckert said.
“He whispered that he thought he wasn’t going to make it. He said he was going to die,” Finney said. She and Eckert talked with Rollison to keep him awake, Finney said.
The killing happened less than 20 minutes after police were called to the J&L Tavern on Highland Avenue in Warren Township, where TaShawn Walker and his father, Thomas Walker, 44, reportedly confronted people accused of celebrating Taemarr Walker’s death.
Walker faces the possibility of life in prison with no parole if convicted of the Rollison killing. He’s also charged with carrying a concealed weapon and improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle.
Taemarr Walker was killed by a Warren police officer early Oct. 19, 2013, on Risher Road Southwest after he crashed his car into a ditch while trying to avoid a tow truck. An investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation said the officer shot Taemarr Walker when Walker reached for a gun inside the car.