Family of slain robbery hero Javis Walker says he had protective instinct

ALBANY — Tamara Walker said the fondest memory she has of her now late brother, Javis, is of him being overly protective of her.

“Javis was nine years younger than me, but if any boy would come over and try to talk to me, he’d get between us,” Tamara Walker says, a sad smile on her face. “He’d say, ‘I don’t want any boys talking to you or thinking about you in a bad way.’

“I asked him if he wanted me to get married and he said, ‘No, stay away from boys.’”

Tamara Walker was in town with her father, Donald Walker, and stepmother, Elizabeth Walker, Tuesday to talk with Albany Police Department detectives about her brother’s death Friday at the Dollar General store at 1906 E. Oglethorpe Blvd., and to make arrangements for his funeral.

Javis Walker was fatally shot by an armed robber. Albany police say he heroically tried to intercede during the robbery.

“I’m not surprised he did that,” Donald Walker said of his son, with whom he’d been out of contact for the last several years. “I raised all my children to do the right things in life. The police told us he rode up to that store on his bike about 30 seconds before everything went down.

“The police we talked to told us he died trying to protect that clerk. They gave us some other details, but they asked us not to talk too much about it because they’re still investigating.”

APD spokeswoman Phyllis Banks confirmed that the Walkers had spoken with police detectives early Tuesday and that Walker had indeed died a hero. She also noted that a number of organizations and churches in the community have expressed interest in helping with Javis Walker’s funeral arrangements and perhaps creating some kind of memorial for the fallen 31-year-old man.

“I think it’s best to hold off on that right now until we get some of these issues straightened out,” Banks said. “Mission:Change is one group that’s talked about helping, and people interesting in doing something for the family might reach out to them.”

Donald Walker, who now lives in Braxton, Miss., said Javis Walker, who was born and raised in Chicago, had moved to Albany to live with family here. Banks said that Javis Walker had lived with an aunt in Albany.

Tamara Walker, who like her younger sister, Portia Hall, still lives in Chicago, said she received a phone call Saturday breaking the news of her brother’s death.

“I was driving in my car, listening to the Motown that our dad loves — the Four Tops’ ‘Ain’t No Woman Like the One I Got’ — when one of my cousins called and said my brother had been shot and killed during a robbery at the Dollar General in Albany,” Tamara Walker said. “She sent me a link to a Facebook post that had been shared so many times already.

“I’m a spiritual person, and it was just heartbreaking to find out this news. My dad had had me searching the internet to try and find Javis because he wanted to reconnect with him. I called dad and told him he’d better sit down because I had some bad news.”

Donald Walker said the news hit him hard.

“When Tamara told me what had happened, I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “Javis had always been a good boy, and I knew he wouldn’t be involved in anything where he was trying to hurt someone. I had two biological sons — Javis and Jarrell. Jarrell died about 15 years ago, so I lost both of my sons.”

Adding to the family’s tragedy, Elizabeth Walker said she buried her mother three weeks ago.

Tamara Walker said she will work long distance — she had to fly back to Chicago Tuesday evening — to complete arrangements for Javis Walker’s funeral, which is tentatively scheduled to be held Oct. 29. She left a phone number and email address with The Albany Herald for persons who might want to contact the family.

“I’m comforted knowing that Javis is in a safer place now than he could ever be on Earth,” she said. “It gives me comfort knowing he’s in a better place.”

Her father smiled at the comment.

“Javis was always lifting people’s spirits,” he said. “That’s the way he was. And him helping that clerk in that store … that’s just Javis being Javis.”