Dashcam recorded fatal shooting of ride-share driver in Fort Worth, records say (2024)

After Sherali Sher Ali fled Afghanistan during the withdrawal of the United States military in 2021, he landed on American soil with a sense he had successfully kept his young family safe.

His wife and two children planted roots in Fort Worth, where the 31-year-old made do driving for ride-share services. On May 17, he didn’t come home for lunch from work as he typically did. His family grew increasingly worried as the hours ticked on. A close friend started making calls and filed missing person reports.

A recently released police affidavit, which includes a description of footage captured by Sher Ali’s dashboard camera, detailed where he was and what happened to him, but his family and friends were left with few clues at the time. His cellphone stopped ringing. His car — a silver Toyota sedan — was listed on the website for a police impound lot. They were told they could not retrieve the car because of an “ongoing investigation.”

The friend’s cellphone lit up with a call after midnight. It was the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office. Sher Ali had been shot and killed.

“When she said that, it’s like your whole body starts to shake and you don’t know what to say,” the friend, Sayed Musa, recalled in an interview Thursday. “You just cry and you’re lost.”

Fort Worth police have arrested one man in connection with the death. The May 17 shooting was seen by at least one witness who talked to police and captured by Sher Ali’s dashcam, which started recording the interior of the car after it crashed, according to the police affidavit obtained by The Dallas Morning News.

Michael Jerome Walker is facing a capital murder charge. The 35-year-old Garland resident remained in Tarrant County custody Thursday afternoon on a $500,000 bond, online court records show.

Messages left for a court-appointed attorney representing Walker were not returned Thursday afternoon. Walker denied involvement in the shooting while speaking with detectives the next day, according to the affidavit.

May 17 shooting details

At 11:37 a.m., officers responded to the 1500 block of Sandy Lane, near Shiny Oaks Trail, after a 911 caller told police they saw a car crash into a fence at a nearby apartment complex, according to the affidavit. The caller described seeing a man, whom police later identified as Walker, step out from the backseat and pull the driver out of the car.

Police arriving on the scene found Sher Ali lying on a patch of grass with multiple gunshot wounds, including in his upper torso, according to the affidavit. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 12:20 p.m.

A witness provided a detective with a description of the man and told police she saw him drive the car to the nearby apartment complex, according to the affidavit. The detective found the car — Sher Ali’s silver Toyota sedan — with multiple bullet holes in the front windshield and blood inside the vehicle.

Detectives spoke with another person at the apartment complex who said Walker had been there the last two days trying to buy drugs and a gun, according to the affidavit. The person provided a description of Walker, who they said goes by “Eastwood Lil Mike.”

A dashboard camera began recording the interior of the car after the crash. The video reviewed by police showed a man sitting in the backseat and matching Walker’s description shoot Sher Ali with a handgun, according to the affidavit.

The dashboard video shows the man driving the car to the apartment complex, where police later found it, according to the affidavit. Police shared the video with other officers in an attempt to locate the man.

On May 18, police found a man matching Walker’s description standing on the side of the road at Eastland Street. The man, whom officers identified as Walker, agreed to speak with detectives, according to the affidavit.

Officers found a handgun lying in the grass near where they found Walker, according to the affidavit.

While interviewing Walker, police determined he matched the descriptions from witnesses and the likeness of the man in the dashcam video. He had the words “Eastwood” and “Mike” tattooed on his forearms, according to the affidavit. An officer saw “a substance consistent with the appearance of blood” on his pants, according to the affidavit.

Police seized Walker’s clothing and he left the interview, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit does not state whether Walker was arrested then. Fort Worth police did not respond to emailed questions seeking more information about the arrest Thursday afternoon.

Family left behind

Sher Ali’s death has rocked his family.

After fleeing Afghanistan, Sher Ali was focused on keeping his wife and their children — a 5-year-old boy and a 2-year-old daughter — safe in an unfamiliar country, Musa said. He was the sole breadwinner, paying the bills by driving for Uber and Lyft.

Musa set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for Sher Ali’s family. As of Thursday afternoon, the donations had reached more than $33,000.

Sher Ali had been planning to move his family to a new apartment, feeling their current complex was unsafe, Musa said.

“He always wanted things safely and better for everyone,” Musa said. “They ran from the Taliban for their safety here in America, but they did not know he was going to lose his life here.”