‘I’ve had enough’: Protests continue in case of Fayetteville man shot by off-duty deputy

A group of more than 30 residents marched from Fayetteville City Hall to the Market House on Tuesday on the third night of protests on behalf of Jason Walker.

Walker, 37, was unarmed when shot and killed by an off-duty Cumberland County deputy Saturday afternoon in front of his home on Bingham Drive.

The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department on Monday identified the shooter as Lt. Jeffrey Hash.

Protesters are calling for Hash’s arrest.

The community is still trying to understand what happened but knows that Walker was unarmed and killed by an armed motorist, said Shaun McMillan, who is part of the Fayetteville Police Accountability Community Taskforce.

“The other fact that we’re still trying to grapple with as a community is after Jason was killed, that armed motorist who shot him was allowed to go free,” McMillan said.

In a video taken by passerby Chase Sorrell in the aftermath of the shooting, Hash told a Fayetteville police officer that Walker jumped onto the hood of his pickup, pulled off the windshield wiper and began beating on the windshield.

Sorrell’s girlfriend, Elizabeth Ricks, said she attempted to render aid to Walker and claims Walker was hit by the truck and was thrown onto the hood before Hash stepped from it and fired several shots at him.

During a news conference Sunday, Police Chief Gina Hawkins said a black box in Hash’s truck did not register hitting “any person or thing” and the only injuries to his Walker’s body were gunshot wounds.

North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation is investigating the incident leading up to Walker’s death.

Hash is on administrative leave pending an internal investigation. No charges have been filed in the case.

McMillan said officials failed the community by not starting the process that would put Hash in front of a jury to judge whether or not he murdered Walker.

“We have to make sure that he is at least arrested and charged if there’s even a hope for justice for Jason,” McMillan said.

Well-known attorney retained

In a statement Tuesday, national civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump announced that he’s been retained by Walker’s family.

Crump said that he is committed to Walker’s family and the young son Walker left behind by finding out what happened to Walker when he was shot by Hash.

“We have reason to believe that this was a case of ‘shoot first, ask later,’— a philosophy seen all too often within law enforcement,” Crump said in a statement.

He said there is hope for a “swift and transparent investigation” by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation to “get justice for Jason and his loved ones.”

‘We lost a very good man’

Jessica Herbert said she attended Tuesday’s protest on behalf of the classes of 2002 and 2003 at Seventy-First High School, Walker’s alma mater.

She said she remembered Walker as being sweet, funny and nice and said he did not deserve to die the way he did.

“We lost a very good man, a good father, a good son,” she said.

She said seeing the video of Walker’s final moments and how authorities handled his death is disturbing.

She said classmates of Walker believe that Hash did not uphold his oath as an officer “to keep people safe.”

“And for him to shoot (Walker) and not even taking time to touch him to see if he was alive, to see if he was OK, is disgusting,” Herbert said.

Tony Spears said he attended Tuesday night’s protest because he’s “had enough.”

“I’ve had enough of the killing,” Spears said.

LaToya Gordon, Raeford resident and activist with the Peacekeepers of Hoke County, encouraged residents to also protest on their own by standing in their yards, placing signs out and communicating at coffee shops about what happened.

“Let your voice be heard in your everyday conversation,” Gordon said.

McMillian said residents are going to have a “consistent presence in the streets and city in order to keep eyes on the situation.”

Organizers said another protest will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the site where Walker was shot, in the 1600 block of Bingham Drive.

A protest is also scheduled for 4 p.m. Friday at the Cumberland County Courthouse, at 117 Dick St.

Demonstrators seek accountability

Protesters called for accountability within local law enforcement and from elected officials.

The Fayetteville City Council voted Monday to ask the Department of Justice to become involved in the case.

Mayor Mitch Colvin issued a statement Tuesday night to offer condolences to Walker’s family and the family of Stephen Addison, a 32-year-old Black man who was killed Jan. 3 by another motorist during an apparent traffic dispute that was caught on cellphone camera. An arrest was made in that case.

Colvin said that as a father and as an African American man he empathizes with the families. He said residents should come together and look out for one another and not resort to violence.

“My hope is that the justice system conducts a full and thorough investigation and parties responsible are prosecuted to the fullest extent so our community can heal and come together as one Fayetteville, as one Cumberland County,” Colvin said.

This article is published through the N.C. News Collaborative, a partnership of Lee Enterprises, Gannett and McClatchy newspapers in North Carolina that aims to better inform readers throughout the state.