Carjacker Fatally Shot After Pointing Gun At Bartow Police: Sheriff

BARTOW, FL — A 32-year-old man with a long history of criminal activities was fatally shot by Bartow police officers Sunday following an armed carjacking, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

Polk Sheriff Grady Judd and Bartow Police Chief Andy Ray held a new conference on U.S. 98 South after Bartow officers shot Joshua Lee Walker.

According to Ray, at about 3:44 p.m., Bartow officers responded to an armed disturbance near Bartow Ford. The caller said a man was waving a gun around and threatening people with it.

When police arrived, they saw a man walking south on the side of U.S. 98 who matched the general description of the man with the gun.

An officer pulled over and got out to confront the man, and a second officer pulled up a short time later and also got out of his car.

Ray said Walker exchanged words with the first officer and then turned east and headed toward a ditch off the shoulder of the road. He then turned back around and pulled a pistol out and pointed it directly at the first officer on the scene.

At that point, both officers fired their service weapons at Walker. Walker was shot twice in the torso. The officers began providing medical treatment until emergency medical services personnel arrived.

Walker was taken to Lakeland Regional Medical Center in critical condition and died Sunday night.

"This is one more example of how law enforcement officers respond to events and have absolutely no idea of the danger they're going to immediately face," said Judd. "This started as an armed disturbance by an individual with a gun. We go to those by the baker's dozen every day. But this one was different."

Judd said earlier that day, Walker got into an argument with his mother at her home in Highland City. He asked for her car and told her he had to leave the area because there were outstanding warrants for his arrest. However, his mother refused to give him the car.

At that point, Judd said Walker took out a 9 mm Springfield pistol with a live round in the chamber and 10 live rounds in the 13-round-capacity magazine and pointed it at his head. He told his mother he would commit suicide by cop and then left her home.

Judd said Walker went to a liquor store a couple of block away. A woman was sitting in a car in the parking lot while her husband went into the liquor storem and Walker carjacked the car at gunpoint. At the intersection of Earnest Smith Boulevard, he rammed a large pickup truck, causing severe damage. Walker than hit a second vehicle carrying two passengers, disabling the stolen car he was driving.

Judd said Walker got out of the stolen vehicle and tried to carjack two more vehicles that were headed north on U.S. 98 but both vehicles refused to stop.

Walker then ran south in the northbound lane. Judd said that's when Bartow police encountered Walker.

"They thought they were just going to an armed disturbance. They had no idea that they're responding to this very violent, very dangerous man who has threatened suicide by cop," the sheriff said.

Grady said Bartow police officers "did an absolutely fantastic job. They're heroes. They protected themselves, they protected the comunity. He (Walker) knew he was going back to prison and he wasn't going back to prison. I'm very grateful and thankful that none of our law enforcement officers were injured, I'm thanful and grateful that none of the people carjacked were injured and I'm grateful that the ones that were hit suffered very minor injuries."

One was treated at the hospital.

Judd said Walker has a criminal history that's 30 pages long and includes eight felony convictions that landed him in state prison from 2016 to 2018 and from 2018 to 2022.

The warrants for Walker's arrest from the Polk sheriff's office included harassing communication, two counts of grand theft of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and harassing a victim.

"At the end of the day, this was a thug," Judd said. "This is a sorry individual who wanted to create all kinds of havoc in the community, and the police stopped him today just like they should have."

The Officer-Involved Deadly Incident Task Force for the 10th Judicial Circuit is now investigating the shooting.