FORMER DRUG DEALER TO SPEAK

Sylvester Walker remembers the night he gave up peddling drugs. It was
the night he died, he said.

In 1959, Walker was a drug pusher and heroin addict. One Halloween, he
injected a nearly lethal dose of heroin into his veins.

"All I remember is people saying, 'The Cat is dying,'" said Walker,
now 64.

Walker said he laid on the cold cement in New York's Times Square for
more than three hours. He said was taken to a hospital, where he was
initially declared dead.

The near-death experience changed Walker, who left drugs behind and
committed himself to Christianity. He's now a preacher who has
traveled the world.

Walker is in Fayetteville to tell his story. He has invited drug
addicts and drug dealers to listen. Tonight, Walker speaks at the
Freedom Temple of Deliverance at 3816 Murchison Road. On Wednesday, he
is scheduled to speak at 7 p.m. at the Cumberland Foundation Community
Center at 308 Green St.

"We are trying to reach a lost, dying world out there," said E.H.
Sandlin, a minister who invited Walker to speak in Fayetteville. "Here
is a living witness.

"He lets people know that there is a better way, and it can be done,"
she said.

Walker has told his story often since his near-death encounter,
traveling to several states and abroad. In the 1980s, he lived in
Fayetteville. He hasn't been back for several years.

"I didn't realize how big the drug problem was," said
Walker.

Walker said he was walking from the downtown library to his hotel on
Ramsey Street when he saw a young teenager on a bicycle.

"The boy pulled out an amount of money that was bigger than my fist,"
Walker said.

Walker asked the boy how he got the money.

"He said, 'I sell dope on Murchison Road,'" Walker said. "That guy
couldn't have been more than 13 years old."

But Walker is optimistic he can reach out to those caught up in
drugs.

"I'm a living testament," he said.