Felony charges have been filed against a 60-year-old man who is alleged to have murdered a 19-year-old UC Berkeley student and Black Lives Matter supporter without any “warning or provocation” in a cold blooded attack.
On Monday, Alameda County district attorney’s office filed felony charges against Tony Walker for the June killing of teenage Cal student Seth Smith.
Smith was murdered on June 15, while taking one of his regular walks about a mile away from his home, when police say Walker walked up to the teenager and shot him in the back of the head at point blank range. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Walker, who was already on probation at the time of the alleged murder, faces felony charges of murder as well as charges relating to the illegal ownership and use of a firearm and ammunition, given his criminal record reported Berkeleyside.
Berkeleyside went onto report on Walker’s lengthy list of antecedents as a career criminal:
The charges filed against Walker include a long list of felony convictions, including multiple strikes, dating back more than 40 years.
In 1979, according to court records, Walker was convicted of burglary. In the ’80s, he was convicted of burglary, vehicle theft and multiple robbery counts. In the ’90s, there were additional robbery convictions.
In 2001, Walker was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon. His next conviction came in 2016 when he was found guilty of possession of a firearm by a felon. He was placed on probation.
Smith’s mother, Michelle Rode-Smith, pointed out that she and her son were staunch supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Rode-Smith stated that she did not want her son’s death to further distance race relations after a summer brimming with civil unrest–although she was disheartened to see that an older black man was detained in relation to her son’s murder.
When speaking about Walker, she said: “harbored so much anger about what’s happening in the world.”
“Let’s get rid of the hate, period,” she said. “Nobody should feel anger and hatred toward another human because of what they look like.”
“I don’t hate anyone,” a tearful Rode-Smith added. “But I certainly am frustrated and I wish I had my son back.”
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