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Trumbull prosecutor releases video of shootout that killed Niles man in 2013
Surveillance Footage - Shootout
Video
Surveillance footage from the shootout between TaShawn Walker and Richard Rollison.
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Surveillance videos from two cameras mounted outside the Sunoco gas station on West Market Street show how the Oct. 26, 2013, shooting death of Richard Rollison IV unfolded.
The Trumbull County Prosecutor’s office released the videos Tuesday, after the criminal case against TaShawn “Boo” Walker, 27, concluded with Walker pleading guilty Monday to reduced charges.
Walker, of Baytown, Texas, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter, carrying a concealed weapon and improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle.
Over the span of nine minutes, the videos show Rollison, 24, of Niles, parking his sport utility vehicle beside one of the gas pumps. Robert McKinney was his passenger, according to Chris Becker, asssistant prosecutor.
First McKinney and then Rollison walk over to another SUV parked at another set of pumps to talk to the driver, Phillip Honzu.
Rollison, who got inside the front passenger seat of Honzu’s vehicle, remained there for about nine minutes, until a short time after a car driven by Thomas Walker, 46, father of TaShawn Walker, pulled up to pumps behind Rollison’s and Honzu’s vehicles.
A little more than a minute before shots were fired, Thomas Walker walked toward the store, while TaShawn Walker headed straight for Rollison’s SUV. Moments later, he was joined by a second man and then a third, as they stood near the passenger front door of Rollison’s SUV.
With McKinney inside the SUV, one of the three men tried unsuccessfuly to open the passenger door.
TaShawn Walker, 27, then walked toward Honzu’s SUV and stopped at the driver’s door next to Honzu. Rollison got out of Honzu’s SUV and walked in front of it.
TaShawn Walker, who appeared to be talking to Rollison, moved toward Rollison. They stood facing each other, slightly circling each other, until Rollison walked away from Walker, his back turned, in the general direction of his own vehicle.
Rollison turned part-way back toward Walker two times, from 10 feet or so away, possibly talking to Walker, until Walker’s arm rises from his side, and the gun flashes as he fired three times.
Rollison then ran toward the back of his vehicle, where he fell to the ground and didn’t get up. He died later at the hospital.
Becker provided identifications for the men in the video. Becker said Rollison was hit by bullets from at least two guns, that Rollison also fired his gun and that shots were fired from four to five guns.
After Walker started firing his gun, his father and the two other men dove away from the area. TaShawn Walker ran quickly to get beside his father’s car because McKinney was firing at them from inside Rollison’s SUV.
TaShawn Walker ducked and continued running past his father’s car and to the west along Market Street and disappeared. His father and the two other men eventually drove away, after McKinney drove away, leaving Rollison writhing in pain.
In addition to the Rollison, Walker and Honzu vehicles, two other cars were near Walker as he fired. One apparently not connected to the fight had to wait until Walker stopped firing to drive away because Walker was firing just over the hood of the car.
The 12:54 a.m. shootout occurred a short time after TaShawn and Thomas Walker left a tavern in Warren Township, where they purportedly confronted people they said were celebrating the death of TaShawn Walker’s brother, Taemarr Walker, 24, exactly one week earlier. Rollison had been at the tavern that night, his father has said.
Taemarr Walker died in a confrontation with a Warren police officer. His death and Rollison’s death touched off a period of tension in the city.
Becker said he doesn’t know the motive in the Rollison killing, partly because the people who witnessed the incident refused to cooperate with investigators.