Walking to Save Lives

YATAHEY, N.M.

Dressed in Day of the Dead face makeup, Nicole Walker walked west along the shoulder of U.S. Highway 264.

She was waking to help bring awareness to victims of domestic violence.

Her decision to begin what she refers to as an emergency prayer walk comes in response to the fatal shooting of Navajo Nation Police Officer Alex Yazzie last Thursday by suspect Justin Fowler, 26.

She also decided to walk because her cousin-sister, Shirley Benally, of Shiprock, was beaten by her husband the same night that Fowler took Yazzie’s life in the shootout that ended in Red Valley, Ariz.

According to Walker, 57, one of the officers involved in the shooting with Fowler – Officer Herbert Frazier, 41, – had responded to Benally’s domestic violence call in Shiprock, before being called out to help Navajo Nation Police and other law enforcement agencies settle the shootout with Fowler.

“It’s an emergency walk,” explained Walker, who began walking Tuesday in Yatahey with her dog, Coda, and a Navajo Nation Flag.

Walker, who held a sign that read, “Help me, I’m going to die!” said her emergency prayer walk is about bringing awareness to domestic violence because it affects everyone, including her cousin, the fallen officer Yazzie, and the wounded officers Frazier and James Hale, 48.

Yazzie, Frazier and Hale were a few of the officers involved in the Fowler shootout.

It’s tied in because the night Officer Yazzie died was the same night her cousin-sister was beaten by her husband, Walker said of the domestic violence connection.

Walker said that Benally was supposed to join her for the prayer walk Tuesday, but she could not because she had experienced a slight heart attack.

Walker attributes her cousin sister’s health scare to the stress she experiences from her husband, who had returned home from a party-weekend, where he attended the Ty Murray PBR Invitational in Albuquerque.

Speaking on behalf of her kin, with tears behind her makeup, Walker said that Benally is basically held hostage and fears for her life.

One day driving down the Chooshgai Mountains, near Crystal, N.M., Walker remembers how Benally wanted to drive off the cliff of the mountain.

“For six months, you hear her cry. You see her tears,” Walker said of Benally. “I watch her kids cry, and she files a restraining order, she gets beat up.”

Benally had filed a restraining order last Thursday in Shiprock District Court, according to Walker.

In honor of the officers, Benally and other victims of domestic violence, Walker is asking others to join her tonight at the Wildcat Christian Academy in Blackhat, N.M. Walker will be hosting a prayer vigil at 7:30 p.m.

She will begin the second leg of her trek to Window Rock on Wednesday from Wildcat Christian Academy to Western Indian Ministries in Tse Bonito, N.M.

Then on Thursday, she will finish her journey into Window Rock, where she plans to share this domestic violence awareness with tribal leaders, including Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly.

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