Inset (top): Timothy Taylor (Milwaukee Police Department). Inset (bottom): Amaya Walls (Instagram). Background: The home in Milwaukee, Wis., where Amaya Walls and another woman were allegedly shot (Google Maps).
Police in Wisconsin are looking for a man accused of fatally shooting a woman he used to date.
Timothy Taylor, 40, is at large after being charged with first-degree intentional homicide and other felonies in connection with the shooting death of 20-year-old Amaya Walls. According to a criminal complaint reviewed by Law&Crime, police responded to a home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, around 2:50 p.m. on Oct. 8 and found Walls and a female friend on the front porch. Both women were bleeding from gunshot wounds.
While police provided first aid to the other woman, who was reportedly shot in the arm, Walls died of her injuries at the scene.
Police said a male witness who was inside the house told them he might have video footage of the incident. In an interview with police, the man said he was sleeping in the house until he heard gunshots. When he looked out the window, he saw Walls' friend screaming while a male with dreadlocks and a "scruffy beard," later identified as Taylor, was trying to strike her. The witness provided police access to his surveillance video.
According to the complaint, the video showed Walls and her friend walking on the sidewalk. A silver Chevrolet Equinox pulled up to them "at a high rate of speed," causing both women to run away from the vehicle. The video showed Walls trying to "escape Taylor," who got out of the Equinox to chase Walls on foot. Police said Walls was screaming, "[G]et away from me!" to Taylor multiple times before he reached Walls and fired three shots at her "at near point blank range."
Police said Taylor then fired a shot at Walls' friend before getting back into the Equinox and fleeing the scene.
The female friend identified Taylor as the shooter to police. In an interview with local Fox affiliate WITI, the woman, who did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation, said, "He shot her. The first bullet killed her. He shot her two more times."
She also told WITI that the police responded to a call from Walls about Taylor about three hours earlier. According to the complaint, police responded to a call the same morning around 11:30 a.m. concerning a domestic violence incident. Officers met with Walls, who said she and Taylor argued while driving in his Equinox about a "prior incident." They stopped at a gas station, where Taylor allegedly yelled at Walls, then "poured water and a drink on her."
According to the complaint, a "good Samaritan" witnessed the altercation and offered Walls a ride to another location, which she accepted. Taylor reportedly went to the second location to get his phone back. After Walls gave him the phone, he left, only to return and pound on the door and ask her, "[W]here's my money?"
Police said Walls told them that Taylor was holding a "pickle jar," which he threw at her before leaving. After officers arrived and found Taylor gone, Walls put him on speakerphone. Officers said they heard Taylor tell Walls, "I'm going to shoot the house up and shoot you."
About three hours later, Walls was dead.
Walls' friend told WITI, "If you're a police officer, and you hear someone saying they want to shoot up the premises, you'd want to stay longer and case the neighborhood. They didn't do that."
Police said in the complaint that Taylor had a history of domestic violence against Walls. He had been ordered not to have any contact with her and not to possess a firearm.
He is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, two counts of bail jumping and battery with a domestic violence modifier.
Walls' family and friends have started a GoFundMe for funeral expenses.
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