A homeless maniac charged with shoving an off-duty NYPD cop onto Manhattan subway tracks was as soon as a standout Massive Apple highschool hoopster — till his life went off the rails.
Aaron Walker, Jr., 28, was on his strategy to a promising basketball profession at Cardozo Excessive Faculty and a freshman begin at Manhattan Faculty till he disappeared into the streets — and now has 18 busts on his rap sheet and an tried homicide expenses within the cop-shoving incident, The Publish has discovered.
It’s a tragic fall for a younger star as soon as nicknamed “Skywalker” for his hardwood prowess.
“Aaron was recognized for getting within the lane and throwing down some loopy dunks, which gave the staff and the fitness center loopy vitality boosts,” former Cardozo teammate Rashond Salnave advised The Publish.
“We have been one of many higher groups within the metropolis and every time we performed, for essentially the most half, we placed on reveals,” Salnave mentioned. “He got here the next yr after I received town championship throughout a little bit of a rebuilding time with the staff, and [he] was positively a key half in making that journey again.”
In a 2016 interview, Walker, a 6-foot-1 level guard, advised The Publish about his struggles to remain targeted on his recreation following his mom’s loss of life when he was simply 9-years outdated.
“I began considering, ‘What was I actually doing this for,’” the Brooklyn hoopster mentioned.
It was his mom’s reminiscence and a photograph along with his mother that motivated him.
“That is it,” Walker mentioned. “I made it the wallpaper on my cellphone. I pinned it on Twitter. Each time I’m feeling down about something, I have a look at the image. It simply retains me going.
“I do know she wouldn’t need me quitting on myself,” he mentioned. “She believed in me.”
As a freshman standout at Manhattan Faculty within the Bronx, Walker averaged 8.9 factors per recreation — and turned it up throughout his ultimate 4 video games, averaging 15.8 factors over that span.
However then issues went horribly improper, and he mysteriously disappeared earlier than his sophomore yr. He by no means performed once more.
“I imagine that when he entered school he acquired hooked on medicine and alcohol,” his father, Aaron Walker, Sr., mentioned Tuesday. “And that had the foremost impression on him. That was that 180.
“It’s robust,” he mentioned. “I feel he was tremendous in highschool, however when he went to varsity, it simply acquired darkish.”
Walker already had 4 open assault and theft instances in Manhattan and Brooklyn when police mentioned he attacked the 24-year-old cop at an East Village subway station on Sept. 23.
On Sept. 17, he was charged with stealing garments from a Goal retailer in Tribeca.
Police have additionally charged him with assault within the Sept. 13 alleged assault on a 22-year-old straphanger on a C practice on the Fulton Avenue and Kingston Avenue station in Brooklyn on Sept. 13.
On Aug. 29, he was arrested for allegedly stealing merchandise from a Barnes & Noble outlet close to Union Sq., and was additionally picked up on expenses that he stole $300 price of vinyl data from one other Barnes & Noble in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn on July 23.
Walker was convicted of grand larceny for stealing $5,000 price of things from Saks Fifth Avenue in Might 2024, and was charged with trespassing in Manhattan in December 2022, in response to sources.
Now, following his East Village subway shove bust, he’s being held with out bail at Rikers Island and is due again in Manhattan courtroom on Oct. 15, data present.
