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Emotional Walker talks about Darrent Williams' shooting

Receiver recounts events leading to Williams' death

Jeff Legwold, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 13, 2007 at midnight

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A bloody shirt, the haunting memories of a friend dying in his arms and the desire to deal with his grief alone - that's what Broncos receiver Javon Walker carries with him into the 2007 season, into the rest of his life.

Walker, in an interview with HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel to be aired Tuesday night, made his first public comments about the bloody early- morning hours of New Year's Day, when cornerback Darrent Williams was killed in a drive-by shooting.

The interview, previewed Saturday by the Rocky Mountain News, was conducted earlier during the offseason in Arizona.

Walker has not recounted the events before and after Williams' death to local media outlets. So far during training camp, as recently as Friday afternoon, Walker steadfastly has said he would only answer "football questions."

"Who would want to go out and shoot a young man like Darrent Williams, or if they knew they were shooting Darrent Williams?" Walker said in the interview. "I've thought whoever did it, they probably thought the next day, 'Man, I shot Darrent Williams.' I wonder what everybody else wonders, who in their right mind would go out and want to do that."

In the HBO interview, Walker also described the confrontation inside, and later outside on the sidewalk in front of a Denver nightclub, involving at least two men and Broncos receiver Brandon Marshall as well as Marshall's cousin, that he said led to the shooting.

In another part of the segment, some of Williams' friends from Fort Worth, Texas, who also were in the limousine, said the two men who confronted Marshall and his cousin inside the nightclub "were throwing gang signs."

Williams' friends were not identified in the preview copy, but all of them clearly said they and Williams were not involved in a gang.

Walker said he was not sitting with Williams or Marshall inside the nightclub but tried to act as a peacemaker when he could see the argument among Marshall, Marshall's cousin and the two men escalate.

"I kind of got between them. . . . I was like, 'Hey, man, don't worry about it, let's go, let's go,' " Walker said. "And then I went back by Darrent Williams and was kind of looking around to see what was going to happen next, and that was when Darrent was like, 'Hey, man, ride with me.' "

Williams was killed when he was shot in the neck less than one mile from the club as the limousine he, Walker and Williams' friends rode in was riddled with gunfire.

Walker also described how Williams had slumped over into Walker's lap after being shot and how Walker initially had tried to push him away, thinking nothing was wrong.

"And at the time, I was like playing with the music, and I took this hand and I said, 'Quit playing man, quit playing.' You know, joking around, and when I did like this (he waves his arm in the video), like lifted him, I had blood all over me. That's when you heard all the shots.

"So I grabbed his neck, and after I grabbed his neck - obviously, he didn't have no words - I had him kind of like close to me, blood was shooting out, I was trying to hold it. All I remember at that point in time, he was just looking up at me. And I was just like, 'I got you "D," I got you "D," I got you "D." ' "

Walker said he initially thought he should try to run, carrying Williams' body, in case those who fired the weapons circled back to see who survived.

Walker also went on in the interview to say it was too painful for him to attend Williams' funeral.

And in the weeks after the shooting, he feared those involved might try to "finish everybody in that limo."

Walker added that he kept the bloody clothes he was wearing at the time of the shooting as a reminder of "what happened to my friend and this is what's left of him is on my clothes."

And more than seven months after the shooting, Walker remains adamant that, despite the Broncos having made grief counseling available to anyone in the organization who has wanted it, he did not want go through it.

Asked in the interview if he ever would get over seeing Williams die, Walker said, "I really don't know. . . . I know one thing is they ain't got to worry about me not going out and giving my best.

"I mean, just let me deal with things my own way. Being by myself. I don't need to see no counselor, none of that stuff."

Walker added he didn't know if he wanted to return to Denver after the shooting and used the word "coward" to describe those involved in the shooting.

"Whoever did it, you know, coward and scared, just coward and scared to sneak up on somebody and shoot at them?" Walker said. "You know, if you're going to face it like a man and want to do something that a grown man would do, why not do it to their face?"

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