There are some labels A.J. Walker doesn’t mind.
Like student: Although his mind hasn’t completely recovered from a shotgun blast that left more then two dozen pellets in his head, he’s now studying international business at Westminster College.
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Circle The Wagons
Those interested in donating to the Utah-based nonprofit Circle The Wagons, founded by the Walker family to support victims of violent crime, should go to circle-the-wagons.org.
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Or humanitarian: The now-20-year-old traveled to the tropical forests of eastern Africa a year ago with the nonprofit SEEE Institute to build swing sets, deliver books and install solar-powered lights for remote village schools.
Or even advocate: He and his mother, Vickie, created Circle the Wagons, which supplies two of the state’s largest police forces — the Salt Lake City Police Department and Unified Police Department — with cans of lemon drops, words of hope and lists of resources for victims of violent crime.
But there is one label Walker would like to remove: Trolley Square shooting victim.
"No one would want to be recognized for something as traumatic as this," he said.
Five years ago, A.J. and his dad were gunned down outside the Trolley Square shopping mall in Salt Lake City. The two had just picked up sandwiches at Desert Edge Brewery after a pre-Valentine’s Day shopping trip when they encountered Sulejman Talovic.
Jeffrey Walker was shot and killed. Wounded, A.J. escaped.
A.J. isn’t looking back. He plans to treat the anniversary like any other day. He’ll acknowledge it. But he won’t dwell on it.
"Trolley Square doesn’t define who I am or who I am going to be," A.J. said. "It doesn’t limit me. It is just something that happened in my book of life."
Still, A.J. hasn’t escaped the health effects of that horrific day. He spends long hours doing homework and relies on a note-taking aide to pursue his degree. He gets discouraged. But he doesn’t stop.
"He has been such a huge example," his mother, Vickie, said. "He works so hard to get the grades he does. I admire my son."
And times have changed for the better. A.J’s seizures, for one thing, have subsided. Aside from a scare in Uganda, when a mixture of stress and early morning outings exhausted him during his 2010 humanitarian trip, A.J. hasn’t had a seizure in more than two years.
As for his mother?
She has found healing in the Circle the Wagons. This week, volunteers will assemble 1,000 "Cans of Comfort" that will be distributed by the Unified Police Department. By year’s end, Vickie hopes to expand the nonprofit foundation to reach every police department along the Wasatch Front.
"When you go through something like this, you have two choices, to either curl up in a ball or go on living," she said. "We have all chosen to approach this in a positive light and help others."
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