Noam Galai / Getty Images
Georgia police on Wednesday announced they have issued arrest warrants for a former associate of R. Kelly who allegedly robbed two Atlanta houses belonging to the singer while he was on tour.
Alfonso Walker, 50, is facing charges of burglary and theft, and remains on the run. Walker used to do “odds and ends jobs” for Kelly, Captain Christopher Byers of the Johns Creek Police Department told BuzzFeed News.
Kelly’s housekeeper contacted authorities on Nov. 26 when she arrived to discover “everything was gone,” according to a police report.
Captain Byers said several valuables were taken from the home, including furniture, clothing, and television sets.
When investigators visited another of Kelly’s residences in the city, they then found it had also been burglarized.
Neighbors noticed suspicious vehicles at one of the homes over the course a week, with people moving items, but Byers said they didn’t find it alarming because the men “were doing it in broad daylight and weren’t acting like your typical burglar.”
Alfonso Walker
Johns Creek Police Department
Walker was connected to the crime after a detective went to the second of Kelly’s burglarized homes to do some follow-up work, Byers said. As he came up on the driveway, he noticed three individuals who were moving things out of the home and into a truck allegedly registered in Walker’s name.
According to Byers, the men told police that they were hired by “Doc,” a nickname for Walker, to move Kelly’s belongings because the singer was getting rid of his possessions for a move from Atlanta to Chicago, Kelly’s hometown. Since Walker had done work in the past for Kelly before, the men said they thought that everything was above board.
Byers told BuzzFeed News that Walker sold Kelly’s possessions “a room at a time.” One of the men admitted to buying one of the room’s items for $6,000.
There’s no current estimate of how much was taken from the homes because police are still waiting on that information from Kelly, but the individuals who bought items are listed as victims in the police report since they purchased them without knowing they were stolen.
WSB-TV was first to report the news.
In interviews with police, Walker allegedly said he sold the items because he felt he was “owed” money from the singer.
Walker was supposed to turn himself into police on December 5, but failed to do so.
Kelly’s spokesperson said he was thankful to police for their “swift and diligent work in determining the responsible parties.”
“He would also like to thank all of his fans around the world for their love and support, as well as the community for being very cooperative,” the spokesperson said.”
A BuzzFeed News investigation in July found parents have told police that R Kelly has allegedly been keeping young women in several of his homes against their will, including a home in Johns Creek. Kelly has denied the allegations against him.
“He doesn’t have that house anymore to my understanding,” Byers said when asked if the homes that were burglarized were where any of the women in the BuzzFeed News report lived.
LINK: R. Kelly Is Holding Women Against Their Will In A “Cult,” Parents Told Police