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Trigger warning: This article contains mentions of assault, shooting and drug violation. Readers' discretion is advised.
On March 2, 2024, 44-year-old James Walker from Arizona passed away from an apparent act of self-harm by hanging. James was serving a 30-year sentence for the 2016 Beeline Highway shooting spree.
A press release by the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry stated that the 44-year-old deceased inmate was taken into custody in 2018 after he was sentenced out of Maricopa County for aggravated assault, armed robbery, and a dangerous drug violation.
According to the press release, James Walker's assigned housing location was at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Tucson after he was sentenced.
The medical examiner's office will investigate James Walker's death
The press release by the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry stated that on March 2, 2024, James Walker was found unresponsive in his housing unit by prison staff. Following this, life-saving measures were performed on him until the arrival of paramedics.
The paramedics, who were in consultation with medical staff, declared the 44-year-old inmate dead.
The press release further mentioned that an investigation will be conducted by the medical examiner's office into James' death:
"All inmate deaths are investigated in consultation with the county medical examiner’s office."
KPNX reported that James was convicted of an all-night shooting spree on an 18-mile-long stretch of Beeline Highway (also called State Route 87) in May 2016. He fired at an Arizona Department of Public Safety cruiser and two other vehicles. He was armed with an AR-15, and one of the cars he fired at ended up catching fire.
Following the first shooting, James carjacked a vehicle and drove north on Beeline Highway. KPNX further stated that James then drove that car into a ditch and started shooting once again, prior to fleeing the scene and disobeying orders to surrender. He was eventually caught by a police dog. His shooting spree left two people injured.
Multiple vehicles were damaged in the shooting, as per Fox News report.
James Walker was first convicted at the age of 16
According to KPNX, the 2016 Beeline Highway shooting spree conviction wasn't James Walker's first run-in with law enforcement. In 1995, at the age of 16, he shot two individuals in Chandler following an altercation about the Halloween costume he was wearing. One of those individuals died, and James was convicted of second-degree murder and aggravated assault. He spent 16 years in prison.
Fox News reported that James was released from custody in 2011 on supervised release. The entirety of his sentence was concluded in 2014.
KPNX added that in March 2016, two months prior to the Beeline Highway shooting, James Walker was apprehended on suspicion of doing drugs in a parking lot in Mesa.
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