Man Fatally Shot After Holdup Feared Prison

A 22-year-old man killed by sheriff’s deputies after a bank holdup in Dana Point feared he was facing a long prison term for attempted murder and may have robbed the bank to provide for his girlfriend and their daughter, the girlfriend said.

James Titus Walker of Lake Elsinore died Friday during a gun battle as he ran from a burning apartment building in which he had barricaded himself.

Sheriff’s officials on Saturday described Walker as a career criminal with a long history of arrests, including arrests on robbery charges.

His girlfriend and family members said Walker, who had been released from jail on bond on the attempted murder charge only days earlier, was convinced he was going to be convicted and sent to prison. The girlfriend, 23-year-old Nicole Strong of Lake Elsinore, said Walker recently talked about the possibility of dying and about his unwillingness to go back to prison.

“He figured if it didn’t go right, he would die because he wouldn’t go back to jail,” Strong said. “He told me what to do in the event of his death. He’s been saying that for a while.”

Strong said she believes that Walker robbed the bank to get money for her and their daughter to live on. Strong said she is six months pregnant with Walker’s second child.

“He wanted us to be secure before he died,” she said. “He said he had a plan. . . . I didn’t know he was going to rob a bank. I knew hewas going to do something.”

Authorities said Walker was masked when he walked into the Bank of America at 11:22 a.m. He left a few minutes later carrying a semiautomatic gun and a bag of money, officials said.

After a brief chase, he allegedly fled into a first-floor apartment, where he piled mattresses against the door then set them on fire. Walker was then shot in the head and torso in a shootout with sheriff’s deputies.