Joshua James Walker named the Shakopee killer

Joshua James Walker

​Joshua James Walker, a 34-year-old Shakopee man with a rap sheet stretching back a dozen years, has been identified as the guy who stole a car yesterday in Plymouth, stabbed 30-year-old Asia King to death in Shakopee, and then was shot dead by cops in a ditch on Highway 169.

His victim was a beauty salon receptionist with two kids.

King's sister, Heather Hoff, told the Star Tribune that Walker was a drug abuser with psychological problems; he'd spent time at the Minnesota Security Hospital, a maximum security psychiatric hospital located in St. Peter.

Walker was apparently the brother of King's boyfriend. Kari King told WCCO that her daughter had confronted him about his drug abuse and was scared for her life.

"I kind of feared he was going to do something. I didn't think it would be this," she told the station.

"Asia told the parents over and over you need to do something with Josh before he does something to somebody," King told KSTP. "It's almost like she prophesied her own demise."

Walker's deadly day started in Plymouth at about 6:30 a.m., where police say he carjacked a Hyundai Sonata at a gas station belonging to Shelle Dressel.

At 8:15 a.m., Shakopee police responded to a 911 call at King's home. As squad cars approached the home, Walker, in the stolen Sonata, rammed one of them and fled.

As King was rushed to Francis Regional Medical Center, where she later died, the cops took off after Walker and caught him as he drove up onto Highway 169 from Marschall Road.

They forced him off the road and ordered him out of the car as more and more squad cars and SUVs rolled up. Traffic was stopped.

"The suspect refused to comply with any instructions, refused to stop, had a dark object in his hand," Shakopee Police Chief Jeff Tate told WCCO. "The officers involved, fearing for their lives, fatally shot the suspect."