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Suspect in Juliet Supperclub Triple Shooting Not Charged

By  Mathew Katz and Irene Plagianos | June 13, 2012 7:03am 

Victor Walker, 47, is suspected of gunning down Artis Arthur at the Juliet Supperclub in November 2011.
Victor Walker, 47, is suspected of gunning down Artis Arthur at the Juliet Supperclub in November 2011.
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NYPD

CHELSEA — A man police arrested for allegedly unleashing a spray of bullets into a popular celebrity nightclub last year, killing one, has been released from custody, DNAinfo has learned.

Prosecutors declined to bring charges against suspect Victor Walker, 47, who turned himself over to cops last week, six months after he allegedly shot and killed a convicted drug dealer and wounded two others while New York Giants partied at the Juliet Supperclub in Chelsea last November.

Walker was arrested June 2 on charges of murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon, police said. But he was never arraigned, never charged by prosecutors and never put in jail, according to court officials and the Department of Corrections.

A spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney declined to comment.

On the morning of Nov. 15, a man shot Artis Arthur, 43, three times in the back with a .40-caliber handgun, killing him, police sources said. The same man also shot Tracy Ryals, 28, a convicted killer who refused to cooperate with police in their investigation, as well as Jonai Washington, 27.

Arthur, a convicted drug dealer, had a suspected history of mugging club-goers, including members of rappers' entourages, police sources said. He was found with $6,500 in his pockets.

Cops had long suspected Walker of being the shooter that night, and authorities believed that the execution-style killing was revenge for a previous heist or an attempt to stop Arthur's suspected nightclub robbery spree.

Walker had served jail time in Maryland for attempted murder and also in New York for robbery, records show.

The Juliet Supperclub saw its fair share of violent crime before it closed at the end of 2011. Two months before the November shooting, Christopher Adames of the Upper West Side was stabbed to death outside the club. Club promoter Manuel "Manny Stax" Pinero, 41, was charged in that case.

Authorities hunted for Walker for over six months until he finally turned himself in.