Shelton “Shorty Pop” Walker / Watkins
Washington, D.C. youth offender and original Junkyard Band vocalist who became a prominent figure in late-1980s D.C. crime and later Alpo/Wayne Perry oral histories.
Identity
Contemporary reporting identifies him as Shelton Cortez Walker, while noting that he also used the surname Watkins. Later cultural sources identify Shelton “Shorty Pop” Watkins as an original vocalist in Washington’s Junkyard Band. Both surname forms should therefore be retained as documented variants.
1989 Most-Wanted Case
In December 1989, D.C. Police Chief Isaac Fulwood Jr. designated the 17-year-old Walker the District’s first publicly identified “most wanted” fugitive. He was arrested in Montgomery County on December 29, 1989 in a joint effort involving D.C. police, Montgomery County police, and the FBI.
At the time of arrest, Walker was wanted in connection with multiple violent offenses, including the 1987 killing of Tony Kenion, the December 6, 1989 killing of Matthew N. Blake, and a Prince George’s County murder-and-rape case.
Music and Cultural History
The Washington Post later identified Shelton “Shorty Pop” Watkins as one of three founding Junkyard Band members who were shot and killed in separate incidents during the 1990s. His biography therefore intersects both D.C. crime history and the history of go-go music.
Alpo and Wayne Perry Accounts
Later participant and cultural sources connect Shorty Pop to Wayne “Silk” Perry and Alberto “Alpo” Martinez and sometimes credit him with helping connect the two men. That specific introduction narrative has not yet been established through a court record and should be labeled as oral-history evidence.