A Texas woman told police in 2012 that when she tried to end what she said was a long romantic relationship with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker he threatened to “blow her head off” and then kill himself.
The woman, Myka Dean, detailed the alleged threats made by Walker to authorities in the Texas city of Irving in a January 2012 police report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. No charges were filed against Walker. His campaign spokeswoman said Friday that he “emphatically denies these false claims” and that he only recently learned about them.
The officer wrote that Dean grew “very reserved” as she spoke and worried her statement would harm Walker, whom she described as the “love of her life.” But the officer reported that he was so alarmed by her allegations that he wanted to document them. Dean died in 2019, and her family issued a statement supportive of Walker that said they were unaware of the threats.
Dean is the second woman who was involved romantically with Walker to accuse him of making violent threats. His ex-wife, Cindy Grossman, has also said he threatened her life, and a recent Associated Press report unearthed documents that show a judge granted Grossman a protective order in 2005 after outlining his alleged threats to shoot her in the head.
While Walker has been candid about his struggles with violent impulses in the past, he has denied threatening both the women. Walker, a former football star, entered the race for the U.S. Senate against Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock this week, and his Democratic and Republican opponents could use the allegations to question his fitness for office.
In the report, Dean told authorities that Walker “lost it” and flew into a fury when she told him she wanted to start dating other people. She and Walker were in an “on-off-on-off” relationship for 20 years, she said, and he wasn’t willing to advance their relationship. Around that time, Walker identified Julie Blanchard as his fiancee. The two are now married.
“He told her that he was going to come and sit outside her apartment and ‘blow her head off when she came outside,’ ” according to the report. “He then told her that he was going to ‘blow his head off’ after he killed her.”
Dean’s mother, Diane McKnight, said in a statement to the AJC that she wasn’t aware of her daughter’s allegations.
“This is the first any of us knew about this, or that it even happened. We are very proud of the man Herschel Walker has become,” said McKnight, who lives in Texas. “We love him, pray for him and wish we lived in Georgia so we could vote him into the United States Senate.”
Financial records show McKnight and Dean were major investors in Renaissance Man Foods, the poultry distribution company that Walker owns. McKnight and her husband, Scott, also served on its board of directors.
Walker campaign spokeswoman Mallory Blount also noted the Republican’s “friendly” relationship with Dean’s parents in a statement.
“Herschel emphatically denies these false claims,” Blount said, adding: “These baseless allegations are surfacing a decade later purely for political mudslinging, which is irresponsible and wrong.”
Shortly after Dean detailed the threats, the officer reported that she stopped recounting her story and told him she didn’t want Walker “to get in trouble.” The officer said she then became “pretty reserved” and said little more about Walker despite his efforts to get her to elaborate.
“She did however state that they have hung out several time (sic) since this incident and nothing has happened that alarmed her,” the officer wrote. “She wasn’t able to tell me why all of the sudden she wanted to call and tell us about this incident.”
He added that she was emotional and crying throughout their conversation and insisted that the officer not write anything down “in fear that Herschel would get in trouble.”
“Because of the extreme threats he made to her and against himself I felt the incident should be documented in more than just the call notes, hence the report,” the officer wrote.
Court records show Walker is accused of similar threats against Grossman, who filed for divorce in 2001. In 2005, she sought a protective order against him, and affidavits by Grossman and her sister accused Walker of threatening multiple times to shoot his ex-wife and her new boyfriend in the head. Walker has denied making those threats.
In a 2008 book, Walker offered candid revelations about his infidelity and suicidal thoughts, along with his struggles with dissociative identity disorder, once known as multiple personality disorder. He framed the memoir as a tale of overcoming personal turmoil through therapy and faith.
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