Community Rallies Behind Retired Couple Facing Harassment From Neighbor

The mood was upbeat as a group of nearly 30 people gathered in Jay Walker’s front yard in the Grove Park neighborhood of east Charlotte on June 22. 

The attendees ranged from college students, organizers with local activist group Feed the Movement Charlotte, and Grove Park neighbors, among others. The group kept to themselves; some conversed with one another while others sketched in notebooks — there was no loud music or boisterous behavior. 

The scene looked like any other potluck you might expect to see around Charlotte on a summer day, but things shifted around 2 p.m. when two deputies with the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) arrived to serve Walker with a criminal summons. 

The deputies were there for the same reason the young community advocates were: For years, Jay Walker has dealt with what he says is unprovoked harassment from his neighbor, Richard Eury.

Eury, who is 75 years old and white, lives directly across the street from Walker and his wife, who are Black. They moved to the home from New York after retiring more than 10 years ago.

The people scattered about Walker’s yard on June 22 were there to show solidarity with the Walker family, whose calls for help from police and local elected officials have gone unanswered. The deputies were there to address an incident between Walker and Eury that had occurred three days earlier.

Once the deputies arrived, Eury came out of his house and immediately began taking photos of Walker speaking with the law enforcement officials as well as any potluck attendees he could capture on his professional-grade camera. The shutter could be heard across the street; he took hundreds of photos in a matter of minutes.  

After deputies served a summons and left, Eury called 911 to report the gathering across the street and request CMPD. Queen City Nerve obtained the audio recordings of Eury’s call. 

“There’s a group of about 20 people across the street from me. They want me to come out in the street. I’m deathly afraid of these people. And I need the police out here. This is an ongoing situation,” Eury told the 911 dispatcher. 

“They want me to come out in the street and talk to them,” he continued. “I’m afraid of them. [Jay] owns the property. He’s doing this every week. He’s having them out there. They’re harassing me. They want me to come out in the street and talk to them. There’s 10 or 12 of them. They’re all males. They’re big guys. I’m 75 years old and a cancer survivor.”

Queen City Nerve was on the scene when this call occurred, witnessing that no people attending the Walkers’ potluck harassed or accosted Eury. We asked if Eury would be willing to discuss the issue for our story, but he insisted that we come on his property to talk.

As Eury is known to carry firearms on his property during similar incidents in the past by his own admission, we declined the offer. A reporter left a phone number for Eury to contact to discuss the matter in a way that would not make him feel intimidated, which he did not do.

In 911 audio obtained by Queen City Nerve from a Feb. 16 incident, in which Eury referenced Walker while saying, “I’m a cancer survivor, and I’m weak, and if I have to shoot him, I’m going to do it. You need to get somebody out here quickly because I’m going to.”

The 911 dispatcher asked if Eury had a firearm on him and he replied with, “Yes ma’am. And I will use it. He has threatened me. He’s assaulted me. I’m tired of it. It’s in my waistband.”

When Queen City Nerve was there on June 22, Eury repeatedly came out of his house to take more pictures. He continually moved his car back and forth in his driveway and set off the alarm to disturb those gathered across the street. He walked down to the end of the driveway with a golf club in his hand at one point to toss a photo that he had taken of Queen City Nerve’s reporter into the street.

Eury also had his past work displayed in his front yard — blown-up photos posted to wooden posts depicting Walker alongside words like “lewd behavior,” which had been spray-painted over at the time of Queen City Nerve’s visit.

The posts were but a small sample of the harassment that Walker and his wife say they have experienced since moving into their Grove Park home to enjoy retirement more than 10 years ago. 

Read More: Former Black Novant Health Tech Describes Racial Harassment

According to Jay Walker, it was around five years ago that Eury began subjecting the Walkers to alleged racial taunts and constant surveillance, repeatedly calling 911 on them for simply existing on their property and attempting to press charges on Jay for a number of superficial reasons.

Eury has called the police to Walker residence as many as 66 times since 2020, according to records obtained by Queen City Nerve.

Eury has a criminal record dating back to 1987 with past charges including assault on a female, assault with a deadly weapon, driving while impaired, misdemeanor larceny, driving without a license, reckless driving to endanger, shooting in city limits, and simple assault, according to court documents. A majority of these cases were dismissed voluntarily by prosecutors. 

Jay Walker did not have a criminal record in North Carolina until the incidents with Eury began. Over the last year, however, the situation between Eury and the Walkers has come to a head, with Eury provoking reactions from a frustrated Walker, leading to multiple charges that Walker will now have to address in court. 

The deputies who showed up to Walker’s home during the potluck on June 22 were there to serve him a summons related to an incident that occurred on June 19, for which Walker was charged with communicating threats and second-degree trespassing related to an argument he got into with Eury.

Walker says he was simply tired of Eury’s harassment techniques, which involve repeatedly taking pictures of Walker and his wife nearly any time they step into their front yard or driveway while also yelling accusatory taunts at them from across the street. 

An eyewitness to the June 19 event told police in a 911 call obtained by Queen City Nerve, “They’re literally on the verge of fighting. One’s taking pictures of the other. He’s about to pepper spray him.

“I pulled up right when the white man was about to pepper spray the Black man,” the witness told a dispatcher. “I said, ‘Let’s just try and calm down and walk away. Because he was about to pepper spray him in the face.'”

Walker also faces charges for impeding traffic and resisting arrest related to a November incident in which Walker lay down on the street between his and Eury’s home as an act of civil disobedience after police once again failed to help him with his problem. 

On Sept. 8, supporters will gather again to stand in solidarity with the Walkers before Jay’s tentative court dates, scheduled for Sept. 16 and Sept. 20. Attorney Tim Emry, who is representing Jay Walker in these cases, will speak at the event on Linda Lake Drive.  

“My client has been through a lot with this neighbor who has a pattern of abusive behavior with neighbors and using the court process to get people he doesn’t like in trouble,” Emry told Queen City Nerve. “Hopefully the state will do the right thing … There’s really nothing to be gained by prosecuting a man like Jay Walker for this.” 

Community advocates have done more than simply show up at Walker’s home in solidarity. Feed the Movement helped organize a drive to install video surveillance on the Walkers’ property, as Jay has said the harassment only worsens when only he and his wife are at home. 

Emry advises anyone going through a similar situation to document it in as much detail as possible in case they need to defend themselves against accusations that paint them as the instigator, as Jay has in this situation.

Walker said he appreciates those who showed up over the summer to support him and his wife, but wants law enforcement and city officials to do something that will actually make a difference. He’s also disheartened by the lack of action from leaders in his neighborhood.  

“The neighborhood of Grove Park, they don’t care,” Walker told Queen City Nerve. “It’s not their business or they’re afraid of Rick, all this kind of stuff. That’s why I’m going through this because I’m not standing for this. He’s been doing this for 30 years or more. People seem to think that it just started when I moved in.

“These people in the neighborhood, they would have me move,” he continued. “It’s almost like if your neighbor’s house is on fire and you just ignore it. How could you do that? I couldn’t do that. I’m not saying to run into a burning building, but you do something … They just left us.”

Emry remains optimistic that prosecutors will decide that the charges against Walker are frivolous. He said he hopes the issue will shine a light on the way the justice system is used by bad actors. 

“It’s frustrating the way some citizens can abuse calling 911 and calling police and abuse the magistrate process to really cause significant problems for people,” he said. “It seems like there’s a power dynamic at play in that it’s far easier for a white man to use these systems to harass people they don’t like than it would be for a Black man.”

Emry said he hopes the Sept. 8 event will serve as a call to action for community members to learn more about the ways that they can support the Walkers, though his priority is in convincing prosecutors that Walker’s upcoming court dates are unnecessary. 

“Hopefully justice will prevail,” he said. “It’s just a sad situation with these three people. This is no way to spend your golden years.”