By Nicholas J.C. Pistor and Denis Hollinshed
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Fairview Heights, Ill. — A fugitive was spotted early Wednesday with a sawed-off shotgun slung over his shoulder and an ammunition belt around his waist.
Julian Walker, a man accused of murdering his estranged wife and his ex-girlfriend’s stepfather earlier this week near Atlanta, was seen by a police officer around 2 a.m. walking away from an abandoned pickup near an office park in Fairview Heights.
The officer flashed his lights. Walker flashed his shotgun.
Walker, 34, swung the weapon from behind his back and fired toward the police car. He hit the upper edge of the driver’s side. The shot missed the officer. Walker fled on foot.
Police say he disappeared within moments into a wooded area near Interstate 64.
The scene was part of a chain of events that led to a massive Metro East manhunt Wednesday. As the sun rose, police sent warnings of the dangerous situation. Holy Trinity Catholic School in Fairview Heights was closed, several other schools were locked down, and shoppers at St. Clair Square and other nearby shops were asked to be on guard as dozens of police officers searched the area.
About 7 a.m., a gunshot was heard from the wooded swath of land near Fountains Parkway just north of the I-64-Illinois Route 159 interchange. Just after 9 a.m., police found Walker’s body in the woods near railroad tracks behind the Fairview Executive Park complex, which includes an Internal Revenue Service office.
Police say Walker had spun the shotgun toward his own face and fired.
Fairview Heights police say there was no suicide note. They also say Walker has no connection to the area and they did not know what brought him to the Metro East.
Walker was heavily armed. “When they removed the body, he had an ammunition belt around his waist that had additional shotgun shells,” Lt. Ron Burckhardt said. “He could have done a lot of damage.”
Burckhardt said he didn’t know why Walker gave up. He said that Walker may have thought he killed the Fairview Heights police officer in the confrontation earlier Wednesday morning.
“Maybe he just decided enough was enough,” Burckhardt said.
The situation put Fairview Heights residents on edge.
James Haller, 20, of Fairview Heights, was asleep in his bedroom when his sister ran in and told him that airplanes and helicopters were circling overhead early Wednesday. “That freaked me out,” Haller said.
Police knew Walker was in the area. They had been looking for him since Tuesday afternoon, the day he used his credit card, which was being monitored by U.S. marshals, at the O’Fallon Wal-Mart. An alert went out, and the manhunt began.
Fairview Heights police theorized on Wednesday that Walker had vehicle trouble and tried to buy repair items. His truck apparently broke down at the corner of Executive Drive and Salem Place in Fairview Heights, where Walker was first spotted by police. Walker was on the run from Georgia since Monday, the day, police officers say, he went on a killing spree. Authorities allege that Walker killed Terrence Lott, his ex-girlfriend’s stepfather, on Monday morning near Lithonia, Ga.
Later that morning, officers say, he killed Rosetta Walker, his estranged wife, with a shotgun.
Police officers from DeKalb County in Georgia arrived in the Metro East on Wednesday to process Walker’s truck and conduct ballistics testing on the shotgun.
Copyright 2007 St. Louis Post-Dispatch