Slain Albany man’s guardian mourns loss

ALBANY — As she recounts the final moments of Javis Walker’s life, Patricia Moore weeps openly.

“I always told Javis to treat people the way he wanted to be treated,” Moore, who raised Walker the final 15 years of his life, said. “He was 31, but his mind was 13. And he had such a sweet spirit. If he saw somebody being mistreated, he’d raise his hands and say, ‘No, don’t do that.’

“The clerk at the Dollar General told me that when those people came in and were robbing the store, Javis raised his hands and said, ‘No, no, no, don’t do that.’ And they shot him. They murdered my baby.”

When members of Javis Walker’s immediate family came to Albany from Mississippi and Chicago this week to talk with police and to help with arrangements for his funeral after he was shot and killed Oct. 13, they talked with The Albany Herald about their slain relative. When their story appeared in the newspaper, Moore’s niece reached out via email, saying Moore was the person who had raised Walker.

“Javis has lived with me, from Chicago to Clinton, Iowa, to Albany,” Moore said. “My husband who has passed was married to Javis’ aunt at one time, and he told me, ‘They’re not treating that boy right. What would you think about him coming to live with us?’ And he’s been with me ever since.

“Now, I am not blood kin to Javis, but I have raised him for the past 15 years. I’ve taken care of him. In all the time he’s been with me, he has not gotten one phone call, one birthday card, one visit, anything from the people in his family. I can’t say what’s in someone’s heart, but you don’t just all of a sudden come somewhere that you’ve never been before to see to the remains of someone you’ve never tried to see unless there’s a reason.”

Moore offers a harrowing narrative of the day that Walker was killed.

“Javis got on that bike — he loved that bike, rode it everywhere he went — and went to the Pic n Sav to pick up some things,” she said. “He usually calls me when he gets there, but he didn’t call me that day. After a while, I started calling him. I heard that there was a shooting at the Dollar General, but they said a manager had been shot. Later, they changed it and said a customer had been shot and killed, and I said to myself, ‘I know it was Javis.’

“I rode down there but couldn’t get close enough to see what was going on. When my husband came home and I told him Javis hadn’t called, he said, ‘Something ain’t right.’ We went somewhere for a little while, and when we came back there was one of Lt. (Keithen) Hall’s cards on our door. It said to call him.”

Hall told Moore what had happened.

“When I called him, I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Oh, my Javis,’” Moore said. “Then he came on and told me Javis had passed. It just hurt my heart. I talked with one of the clerks at the Dollar General and she said that Javis was shot when he tried to protect her. That’s just what Javis would do. He had such a sweet spirit.”

Moore said she was comforted to learn that arrests had been made in the shooting.

“The police came by my house last night (Wednesday) and told me to call Lt. Hall right away,” she said. “When I did, he told me that they’d caught the one that was the shooter. I just said, ‘Thank you, Jesus.’”

Albany police have not identified who they suspect of being the triggerman in the homicide. Cohen Scott Mathews, 22, who had been listed as a person of interest, was arrested in Lee County on Wednesday morning and was brought to Albany, where APD homicide/robbery detectives questioned him. Albany Police Department spokeswoman Phyllis Banks said Wednesday night that Mathews had been charged with murder and aggravated assault.

In addition to murder and aggravated assault with a firearm, the Dougherty County Jail lists charges against Mathews as battery/family violence, first offense; criminal damage to property, second degree; criminal trespass; obstructing or hindering persons making emergency telephone call, and parole violation.

Lee County officials on Wednesday charged Mathews’ girlfriend, 20-year-old Lisa Marie Grigg, with hindering apprehension of a criminal, and possession of marijuana and drug-related objects. Albany police were still searching Thursday for a second woman that they have listed as a person of interest in the case, Heather Nicole Jeffcoat, 32.

Moore said her only concern in her future dealings with Walker’s family is that the young man who’d taken to calling her “Auntie” is laid to rest properly.

“I don’t want anyone to think I want to get anything out of this,” she said. “Ms. (LaDonna) Urick at Mission:Change said Javis would always get to church on Sundays early so that he could help a blind lady there. (Urick) said Mission:Change wanted to help with the funeral costs. I bless them.”

Banks encouraged citizens who might want to contribute to any kind of memorial on Walker’s behalf to make donations to Mission:Change rather than giving money to individuals.

“I’ve talked with LaDonna, and Mission:Change does want to make sure Javis has a proper burial,” Banks said. “I think that would be the best way for anyone to help out in this situation.”

Some in the community have begun a discussion of somehow memorializing Walker. Moore said the man she called her baby deserves to be recognized.

“Javis was a hero; it’s nice that people are going to remember him that way,” she said. “It’s senseless that his life was taken from him like that. He never hurt anyone. He was such a sweet boy. He had a disability, but he was never mean to anyone. The people who saw him remembered how nice he was. I can’t believe they’ve taken my baby from me.”