Hunter
02/28/23
A Cedar Rapids man has been arrested in the stabbing death of a mother of three two months ago.
The Gazette says 37-year-old Shane Teslik was taken into custody in a different Iowa county in connection with the January 2nd killing of 29-year-old Devonna Walker. He will be transferred to Linn County in the coming days.
Activist groups have been protesting since the stabbing, demanding justice. They named Teslik as Walker’s killer on February 16th, saying in a release “It is unjust for his name to remain absent from factual reports while her name has been subjected to accusations and harmful stereotypes.”
The Linn County Attorney’s Office said they supported the constitutional right of the activists to express their concerns about the criminal justice system, but said that the decision to file charges was not influenced by the groups’ actions.
A video of the incident has been circulating on social media. It shows Teslik calling Walker a racial slur followed by a fight between them and another woman. It also appears to show Teslik stabbing Walker. She was found by arriving police and was transported to a hospital, where she died from the stabbing.
The newspaper article also adds that Monday’s release acknowledged that the Cedar Rapids Police Department and the Linn County Attorney’s Office considered the possibility that Teslik would claim self-defense or defense of others, and that the possibility of those claims was part of the reason they felt more information was needed before an arrest.
