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Murder suspect set to return

A Texas man charged with murder in connection with the Oct. 26 fatal shooting of a local resident outside a Warren gas station waived his right to have an extradition hearing in Houston last week – paving the way for his return to Ohio.

Court officials in Harris County, Texas, said Tashawn Walker, 26, appeared for a hearing in Houston on Thursday. However, he had already agreed to waive extradition on Oct. 28, officials said.

Warren Police Lt. Jeff Cole said on Monday his department was making arrangements to have Walker transported to Trumbull County.

Walker has remained at the Harris County Jail without bond since U.S. marshals arrested him Oct. 28 at a home in Baytown, Texas.

According to Warren Municipal Court records, city police issued an arrest warrant for Walker Oct. 26 shortly after Richard Rollison IV, 24, was fatally wounded at the Sunoco service station on West Market Street.

Walker is the brother of Taemarr Walker, 24, who was fatally shot in a confrontation with Warren police Oct. 19 near the intersection of Palmyra and Risher roads S.W.

Dashboard camera recordings from one of the Warren police cruisers at the scene of the gas station shooting revealed that Richard C. Rollison IV identified Tashawn “Boo” Walker as the man who shot him in the parking lot of the Sunoco gas station just before 1 a.m.

Shortly before that shooting, Tashawn Walker and Thomas Walker are alleged to have gone to J&L Lounge in Warren Township to confront one or more persons attending a private party they believed made comments about Taemarr’s death. A fight in the lounge moved outside and shots were fired at the building.

Warren and the surrounding area were on “heightened alert” last week after Taemarr Walker’s death. Officials at the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Warren Post in Southington confirmed that Warren police had asked OSP to help saturate the area with police presence as a precaution.

Last week security at Warren G. Harding High School in Warren was beefed up after rumors of a “shootout” at the school were posted on Facebook. On Friday, school officials said they canceled the high school football game under the advisement of the Warren Police Department and city administration.

However, the John F. Kennedy High School football game Saturday night at Warren’s Molenkopp Stadium at Warren G. Harding High School was played as scheduled because, as Warren Superintendent Michael Notar explained, JFK was not facing the same threat.

“The call I received Friday from Warren police indicated they had credible information that something was going to happen at the Harding game Friday night. There was never any indication that anything was going to happen at JFK Saturday night,” Notar said. “There was no credible concern for JFK. If there had been, I’m sure Warren police would have called JFK and shared this information just as they shared information with me.”

Notar said he was not made aware of the exact nature of the threat.

He said he spoke with Harding football players, band members and cheerleaders on Monday because he wanted them to hear from him why he made the decision to cancel Friday’s game.

The school is planning an event to honor students because of the canceled game.

Meanwhile, State Bureau of Criminal Investigation agents are investigating the police-involved shooting that killed Taemarr Walker after the car he was in went off the road. Police can be heard on dash camera video, while at the scene of Taemarr Walker’s death, discussing a report that he had been on his way to shoot up a local bar when the car went off the road.

vshank@tribtoday.com

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