'I feel unprotected': Fayetteville protesters react to latest in Jason Walker case
About four hours after a special prosecutor announced no charges would be filed against an off-duty Cumberland County sheriff's deputy in the killing of an unarmed Black man, Fayetteville protesters continued to seek justice.
Protesters have spent more than 100 days asking for the arrest of Lt. Jeffrey Hash since Hash fatally shot and killed 37-year-old Jason Walker.
Hash told investigators that he shot Walker in self-defense after Walker jumped onto the Hood of Hash's personal vehicle and began smashing the windshield with a broken wiper.
In a statement released Thursday, special prosecutor Kimberly Spahos, director of the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys, outlined how the evidence at the scene of the killing, coupled with witness statements, made proving otherwise "beyond a reasonable doubt" unlikely.
"Pursuant to (state law) if Walker was in the process of unlawfully and forcefully entering Hash’s truck, Hash is presumed to have held a reasonable fear of imminent death or serious bodily harm to himself or another. Once Hash was in reasonable fear of imminent death or serious bodily harm to himself or another, he was authorized to use deadly force against Mr. Walker — whether that deadly force was driving away at a high rate of speed and potentially causing Walker to fall off and under the truck, shooting Walker from inside the truck, or exiting and shooting him," Spahos said.
Walker sustained four gunshots, including fatal shots to the head and back. Spahos said the trajectory of the bullets indicated Walker's back was not to Hash when the wound was inflicted.
Protesters who gathered in the wake of the news Thursday evening in downtown Fayetteville disagreed that Walker was a threat to Hash and asked why Hash got out of his vehicle to shoot Walker four times.
Jessica Herbert said she graduated in 2002 with Walker from Seventy-First High School in Fayetteville.
Herbert said she is "disgusted" by the decision not to charge Hash and that it doesn’t “sit right with her spirit" that there are no repercussions.
“I feel like I’m not safe. I feel unprotected, especially as an African American in this community,” Herbert said.
Herbert said she thinks that a regular resident who is not in law enforcement would have been prosecuted.
“Unfortunately, there are some who believe this foolishness, but I do not buy it at all,” she said.
Deanna Royal said she grew up a few houses down from Walker.
She said Walker was caring and that she had a conversation with her sister a few years ago when Walker held the door open for her.
Royal said her sister said she “wished she had a man who would open the door for her like that.”
“I said, 'That’s not my man, that’s my friend Jason,'” Royal said.
Royal said she was devastated when she heard that Walker was killed in January.
Last month, she said, her sister got served with court papers that had Hash’s name signed off on the paperwork. Hash is a lieutenant in the Sheriff's Office's Civil Division.
“It was traumatic to get paperwork at your house, close to where your friend died, from the officer who killed your friend,” Royal said.
Royal said she does not think Hash needed to defend himself against Walker.
Miranda Moore also does not think that Walker was a threat to Hash.
She questioned why a gun needed to be used in defense, even if Walker had Hash’s windshield wiper.
“There is no way in hell that that adds up to equal force,” Moore said. “If you were scared, why did you get out of your vehicle?”
She said she will continue to protest because she does not think justice was served.
“There’s no monetary amount that they can put on this man’s life because his son is without a father,” she said.
Community activist “Red” Dawson said he’s in disbelief that Hash is not being charged with at least a misdemeanor. But, Dawson said, he is not surprised no charges will be filed.
“I feel like the justice system has failed us as a whole,” he said.
Dawson said police shooting unarmed Black men is an issue across the U.S.
He and other protesters said their thoughts are with Walker’s family.
“There’s another Black boy without a father and it’s sad … It’s tiresome. The fight is tiresome," Dawson said.
Community activist Myah Warren said the community is not accepting the special prosecutor’s decision to not press charges.
“The world that we live in today, unfortunately, officers can get off with killing people,” Warren said.
Warren said she believes that the same justice for George Floyd, an unarmed Black man with Fayetteville ties who died while being detained by officers in Minneapolis in May 2020, should apply to Walker’s case.
The officers in Floyd’s case were found guilty of his death.
Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.