Family questions investigation into son’s Christmas death

WARNER ROBINS — After her 19-year-old son was fatally shot on Christmas night, Temekia Felder had little information until reading in the news that the Warner Robins Police Department believed her son to be a 29-year-old potential robber.

Jerrell Walker, who had been a student at Middle Georgia Technical College, finished celebrating Christmas with his five siblings at his mom’s house about 4 p.m. Friday. He’d spent the day in the backyard teaching his little brother how to ride a dirt bike, taking Christmas pictures and eating his grandmother’s coveted blueberry pie.

On the way out the door of his mother’s Georgetown Boulevard home, he hugged the necks of his kin and told Felder he was headed out with his girlfriend to her place.

“(Walker) said, ‘Mom, I love you. I’ll be back.’ ‘‘ Felder recalled. “And four hours later, I got a call that said he’s dead. ... That’s the last time that I saw him.”

Felder said she received a call about her son being shot in the 100 block of Oakridge Drive. She said she called Walker’s father, 40-year-old Jerel Walker, and the two drove immediately to the crime scene.

Jerel Walker said officers were tight-lipped and would not tell him where his son was shot, only that it wasn’t in his head.

“The only thing the police told us ... is they got his cellphone,” Walker said.

“They wouldn’t let me see him or anything,” Felder said. “They only thing (officers) showed me was a picture of him.”

Walker’s parents were without answers. It wasn’t mentioned that their son was suspected of robbery, “but then this story comes out and all of us are looking at each other like ‘What?’ “ Felder said.

Antonio Bagley, 29, told police he’d shot Walker because he’d tried to rob Bagley, according to a news release from the police department.

“I was devastated. I don’t know where that story came from,” Felder said, adding that she does not know Bagley or anyone who does. “(Police) just went off of what (Bagley) said. ... If the police investigated it so much, they wouldn’t have gotten his birthday wrong. How did I have a 29-year-old child? I’m only 38.”

Jerel Walker said his son has never been hard-pressed for money, especially around Christmas when grandparents from both sides of the family write him checks.

“You really can’t say what your kid will and will not do, but a robbery? No,” Walker said.

Several attempts to reach Police Chief Brett Evans and Jennifer Parson, the department’s public information officer, were unsuccessful Sunday afternoon.

Walker worked part-time at a Citgo fuel station and what he couldn’t afford, his parents said they provided him with.

A prepaid debit card loaded with $500 remained on the dresser in his mother’s bedroom Sunday afternoon. It was tucked inside an envelope labeled “Man,” her son’s nickname because “he acted like a man when he first (was born),” Felder said. “He did things that a normal person wouldn’t do, like rolling down the windows at 7 months (old) and talking early.”

Though his family said he was intelligent and made good grades as a youngster, Walker often skipped his classes at Northside High School, where he was a starting football player as a freshman. Felder said Walker earned his GED in 2013, the year he was scheduled to graduate high school, and was studying to be a welder but had recently planned to become a truck driver.

Walker isn’t the first in the family to be killed at a young age by gunfire.

In fact, Walker was still grieving the death of his cousin, 16-year-old Antrez Felder, who died in Macon from a gunshot wound to his head in August 2014.

Antrez Felder’s mother, 41-year-old Keita Felder, said Walker would post on her son’s Facebook page a few times every month.

“He was definitely still grieving,” Keita Felder said of her nephew.

On Sunday afternoon, Keita and Temekia Felder sat on the edge of a bed in a dimly lit room in the rear of the home. The two sisters grieved together.

“No mother should have to bury their child,” Temekia Felder said through streaming tears.

“I know,” Keita Felter said, putting an arm around her little sister. “It’s going to be hard, I ain’t even going to lie and say it ain’t, but you’re going to make it. ... I miss both of them.”

Walker’s funeral is scheduled for Wednesday but the location was not final Sunday night.

To contact writer Laura Corley, call 744-4334 or follow her on Twitter @Lauraecor.

This story was originally published December 27, 2015 at 9:20 PM.