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Update
Service calls people to action
About 300 gather to remember Kenneth Walker on first anniversary of his death
BY KELLI ESTERS
Staff Writer
Friday night was déjà vu.
In the same church where the same speaker eulogized Kenneth Walker, people gathered to remember Walker's life and question the events that led to his death one year ago.
"This is supposed to be a celebration. I don't think I'm supposed to cry, but I am," Emily Walker said in front of a crowd of about 300 people as she shared tear-jerking stories of her only son. "In God's time, not ours, we'll have some answers."
Kenneth Walker, 39, was shot and killed by then-deputy David Glisson during a traffic stop of a vehicle that was suspected of carrying armed drug dealers. No drugs or weapons were found on Walker or any of the other three men who were in the vehicle.
At St. Mary's Road United Methodist Church family friend Rev. Daryl Stover of Atlanta was the featured speaker at a memorial service marking the one-year anniversary of Walker's fatal shooting. The service was organized by the local Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, of which Walker was a member.
"Today has been a very difficult day," widow Cheryl Walker said. A year ago was the last time she saw her husband and their 4-year-old daughter saw her father alive. Cheryl Walker told those in the audience, some of whom were wearing black ribbons in remembrance of her husband, that Friday she took her daughter to the grave site for the second time where she just played.
" 'My daddy's not out here, he's in heaven,' " Cheryl recounted her daughter saying at the site.
In the last year, several investigations were launched surrounding the shooting. Glisson was fired for not following procedure, a state grand jury decided not to criminally indict the former deputy and the Walker family filed a $100 million civil suit against Glisson, Muscogee County Sheriff Ralph Johnson and the county.
"It is sort of insensitive for us to be here," Stover said. "There are old wounds that are yet to heal."
Stover called those present into action.
"How good is your voice if you sit and be silent?" Stover said. "Things won't change until you get to movin'."
Urban League President Reginald Pugh, who is also a member of Omega Psi Phi, passed out a letter to all those present. The letter, dated Nov. 29, was addressed to State Attorney General Thurbert Baker and asked him to assign another special prosecutor to the Walker case. The letter alleged that Dougherty County District Attorney Kenneth B. Hodges mishandled the case.
"If we don't get justice, I guarantee another Kenneth Walker incident will occur in Columbus," Pugh said.
At the end of the letter were phone numbers for Baker, Middle District of Georgia U.S. Attorney Max Wood and the U.S. Department of Justice. Pugh asked those at the memorial to call those offices to express their concern and anger about the shooting.
"We all have it in us to do what needs to be done to make sure justice prevails," Pugh said.
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