Background: Davidson County Downtown Detention Center in Nashville, Tennessee (Google Maps). Inset: Johnthony Walker (Metro Nashville Police Department).
A former Tennessee school bus driver previously convicted after a crash that killed six children is facing new allegations, this time involving an attack on his ex-girlfriend and her young child.
Johnthony Walker, 34, was booked Monday into the Davidson County Downtown Detention Center in Nashville on multiple charges, including aggravated assault by strangulation, aggravated burglary, child abuse without injury, interference with an emergency call, and failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements, according to records reviewed by Law&Crime.
Walker drew national attention in 2016 when he was behind the wheel of a school bus in Hamilton County, Tennessee, carrying 37 students from Woodmore Elementary School in Chattanooga, according to CNN’s reporting at the time.
Authorities said the bus was traveling at least 20 mph over the speed limit before it veered off course, overturned, and slammed into a tree. The impact nearly tore the vehicle apart. Six children, ages 6 to 10, were killed, and more than a dozen other students were hurt.
Walker was later convicted of criminally negligent homicide and sentenced to four years in prison, according to a 2020 news release from Davidson County District Attorney General Glenn Funk. While that conviction was under appeal, prosecutors said Walker “admitted to having sex with a 14-year-old on five occasions.”
He subsequently pleaded guilty to aggravated statutory rape and was required to register as a sex offender.
Now, Walker is back in custody. Arrest affidavits obtained by Nashville NBC affiliate WSMV allege that he went to an ex-girlfriend’s apartment on Thursday.
The defendant allegedly broke into her home, tackled her, and grabbed her phone as she tried to call 911. Authorities say he punched, kicked, and strangled the woman, and when her 4-year-old daughter tried to run for help, he tripped her and made her fall.
When police showed up, they reportedly found the woman with a fractured arm, as well as bruises and scratches.
The post Ex-school bus driver whose crash killed 6 children in more trouble after strangling ex-girlfriend and tripping her 4-year-old child who tried to run for help: Authorities first appeared on Law & Crime.
