MENARD, Texas — Police suspect a former Summitville man killed himself rather than face going back to prison after exchanging gunfire with Texas authorities on Wednesday.
Tom Vingar, spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Dustin M. Walker, 23, shot himself in the head after exchanging shots with a Texas state trooper and members of the Menard County Sheriff’s Department near Menard, Texas, shortly after 11 a.m.
Vinger said Walker was driving in central Texas with his 16-year-old girlfriend in the car when he refused to pull over for a speeding violation. The teen girl is a runaway from Anderson. Her name was not released.
Vinger said the high speed pursuit continued until about three miles south of Menard, when Walker drove over stop sticks placed in the roadway by sheriff’s deputies. Walker crashed the Pontiac he was driving, and then began firing on officers, Vinger said.
The public safety spokesman said Walker was wounded at least once before shooting himself once in the head with a semi-automatic handgun. Vinger said it wasn’t immediately known how many times Walker fired. It also wasn’t clear how many shots were fired by authorities.
Vinger said no officers were wounded. The teen girl was also not injured. The shooting happened in a rural area, and there was no danger to the general public. Menard is about 100 miles north of San Antonio in central Texas.
“I think the only danger was to the girl and the officers,” Vinger said.
The spokesman also could not provide a motive for Walker taking his own life. The incident remains under investigation by the Texas Rangers, Vinger said.
Walker’s hometown is listed as Swayzee, Ind., on his driver’s license, Vinger said. Court records indicate that he previously lived in Summitville.
Anderson police Sgt. William Casey, department spokesman, said the girl’s family reported her as a runaway on March 22. Casey said the girl’s mother is reportedly en route to Texas to retrieve the teen. He said she will not face criminal juvenile charges.
Other than a desperate fear of returning to incarceration, Casey also could not provide a reason for Walker’s apparent suicide.
“He said he wasn’t going back to prison and that’s all we know,” he said.
Walker, then a Summitville resident, was sentenced to eight years in prison in September 2004 for felony intimidation. He was released in November, according to the Indiana Department of Correction.
Summitville police arrested Walker in March 2004 after he allegedly pulled a knife on a man in the 100 block of North Main Street. Walker claimed the man turned him into police during a burglary investigation.
Walker also had misdemeanor convictions for criminal mischief, battery and disorderly conduct.
Contact Shawn McGrath: 640-4883, shawn.mcgrath@heraldbulletin.com
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