Heat forward Walker says he’s shaken by Chicago armed robbery
July 12, 2007
OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. – Miami Heat forward Antoine Walker said Wednesday that he remains shaken after a robbery at his Chicago home during which he and relative were bound with duct tape and held and gunpoint.
“When your life’s threatened, it’s obviously going to take some time to get over it,” the Chicago native said Wednesday in his first public comments since the Monday robbery. “I’m not Superman.”
“I’m happy that I’m unharmed and safe, and so is my family,” the three-time NBA All-Star told reporters gathered at his suburban summer basketball camp.
“The material things that were taken from me can obviously be replaced,” he said.
Walker and a relative were bound at gunpoint while multiple robbers took a car, cash and jewelry from his residence Monday evening.
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“It happened real quickly – within a three-to-five-minute span – and I had no time to react,” Walker said.
Police found the vehicle abandoned in Chicago on Tuesday morning but have not announced any arrests in the case.
Walker said he probably would move out of the plush River North neighborhood where the attack occurred, but not out of Chicago.
Walker’s mother, Diane, who was with him Wednesday while he talked about the robbery, said she was upset that her son would be the target of such a crime.
“He’s a giving person,” Diane Walker said. “You can ask him for anything and he’ll give it to you. You don’t have to take it.”
In July 2000, Walker _ then a Boston Celtic _ was the victim of an earlier armed robbery along with NBA center Nazr Mohammed as they sat in a vehicle waiting for a restaurant on Chicago’s South Side to open. Police said at the time that three men approached and demanded cash and valuables, which included a $55,000 wristwatch.
Walker averaged 8.5 points with Miami this past season and was a key part of the Heat’s run to the NBA championship the year before.