NBA player robbed in home invasion
By Mary Owen and Fred Mitchell
Tribune staff reporters
Published July 10, 2007, 12:15 PM CDT
Miami Heat basketball player Antoine Walker was tied up and robbed at gunpoint in his Chicago home Monday evening, his mother and his agent said.
It was the second time the NBA forward has been robbed in his hometown in the past several years.
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Antoine Walker (AP photo by J. Pat Carter)
July 10, 2007
Police said late Monday the home invasion occurred in a residence in the 400 block of West Huron Street in the River North neighborhood at about 5:30 p.m.
Three people were in the house at the time of the robbery and a vehicle, cash and jewelry were taken, Officer John Mirabelli said. There were no injuries.
Walker's vehicle was found abandoned shortly after 9 a.m. this morning at Potomac and Karlov Avenues on the West Side, Officer John Henry said. Belmont Area detectives continued to investigate this morning. Police do not have any suspects in custody.
Walker's agent, Mark Bartelstein, confirmed the incident took place but said he could not provide any specifics. "We are just letting the police do their job," Bartelstein said. "Antoine is obviously upset about it. It is a very difficult thing to go through. So we are just letting the authorities do what they have got to do."
Walker's mother, Diane Walker, said her son "is doing fine now."
"That was not a very good situation to be in," she said. "We are trying to stay strong through it. That was devastating for a parent to go through that ... to know that your child has been treated that way.
"Antoine called me after the incident was going on. I just pray to God that he was able to get loose [from the duct tape]. He was hysterical on the phone when I first talked to him."
In July 2000, Walker, then playing for the Boston Celtics, along with NBA player Nazr Mohammed, were among five victims robbed at gunpoint of cash and a $55,000 watch outside Eppels Restaurant at 554 W. Roosevelt Rd., police said. No injuries were reported in that robbery, police said. The diamond and platinum Cartier watch was owned by Walker, a police spokesman said at the time.
Walker grew up on the South Side and attended Mt. Carmel High School before playing basketball at the University of Kentucky, where he won an NCAA title. Walker's NBA career has taken him from Boston to Dallas to Atlanta and finally to Miami, to where he was traded in August 2005.
In an April 2005 interview with the Tribune, Walker said he would live in Chicago in the summer no matter where he works in the winter.
Tribune staff reporters Dan P. Blake and Jeremy Gorner contributed to this story.
