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A Staten Island National Guardsman accused of slaughtering his family was able to take his toddler sons from a Brooklyn military base the day before the horrific killings — despite a standing order to stay away from the facility, according to new court documents.
Shane Walker, 39, was charged with murder, manslaughter and arson in the slayings of his girlfriend, US Air National Guard Airman 1st Class Alla Ausheva, 36, and their sons, Elia, 3, and Ivan, 2.
Authorities said Walker killed all three before setting fire to the couple’s Palisade Street home on June 22, 2019.
A Family Court order of protection barred him from going near the kids, and Walker’s history of violence was known to his supervisors at the Fort Hamilton Army Base in Brooklyn, where both he and Ausheva served. His unit commander ordered Walker to stay away from the base after he was arrested in December 2018 for hitting Ausheva.
But Walker’s commander on the Joint Task Force Empire Shield, a New York National Guard unit tasked with guarding Big Apple transit hubs since 9/11, didn’t inform Fort Hamilton child care workers about the ban on Walker, court records show.
The revelation emerged after an investigation into why child care workers at the base let Walker take his kids. Four workers were terminated after the probe, and two are now suing in Brooklyn Federal Court.
The December command that Walker stay away apparently left then-Fort Hamilton Garrison Commander Col. Andrew Zieseniss satisfied the situation was being handled, according to a “final decision” from the US Army terminating one of the day care workers.
The suing employees, day care director Michelle Millwood and Child, Youth and School coordinator Lorraine Brown, insist the only way center workers could have kept Walker from his children was with a court order of protection on file.
Ausheva once asked the day care center to keep Walker from their kids, but either failed to provide the court order, or it went missing, Millwood and Brown charge in the litigation.
Millwood and Brown note in court papers that all four fired workers were black women — while a white supervisor who dealt directly with Ausheva’s situation wasn’t disciplined.
The day-care employees question how Walker was let onto the base in the first place.
“With a person like that, if that was the case that he was barred, then everyone should be on the lookout,” Millwood, 43, told The Post. “It was not correctly done.”
Walker’s unit command had put a notice at the front gate that he was not permitted on the base, Brown claims.
But one week before the family was slain, the parents, who were living together, dropped their kids off together, she said.
“It gave the appearance to everybody that everything was ok,” Brown, 60, added.
Millwood worked with Elia and Ivan in the classroom, and called their deaths “devastating.”
“It’s been weeks and months of not being able to sleep, taking anxiety pills, depression medication. It really impacted me,” she said. “There should be enough security and proper procedures in place, it’s not just a daycare where you just walk in off the street.”
“We dispute that Ms. Millwood or Ms. Brown did anything wrong,” said their lawyer, Mark Shirian.
“We were all at risk” because no one knew Walker had been told to stay away, Brown said. “That man could have killed us all. What if the staff had tried to stop him from picking up the kids?”
A New York National Guard spokesman confirmed Walker’s unit commander had ordered him to stay away from the base, but told The Post Ausheva had petitioned to have the restriction lifted. The US Army declined to comment.
Source: NYPOST
