Billey Joe Johnson, African American High School Football Star, Dies From Gunshot Wound Sheriff's Deputy Says Self-Inflicted

Developing.......

Less than one week after the tragic death of George County, Mississippi football star, Billey Joe Johnson, the family has hired Jerome Carter of The Cochran Firm Mobile to represent them.Attorney Carter said he saw photographs of Johnson’s body taken by the family after the state autopsy. “There was clear trauma to the side of his head behind his left ear,” Carter said. “From what I’ve been told in the community, that’s not consistent with a blast from a shotgun in close quarters.” The state has not released the results of its autopsy, but the NAACP and the Johnson family attorney said that the 17-year-old’s body will be sent to an independent pathologist for a second opinion on how he died.

To read the SunHerald article, CLICK HERE.....

It always breaks my heart when I hear that one of our young people has been killed. There seems to be some confusion surrounding the death of Billey Joe Johnson, who was considered one of the top high school football recruits in Mississippi, as well as the country. He was shot to death early Monday morning. Johnson, according to media reports, rushed for more than 1,500 yards his last season, totaling over 4,000 for his career. He received scholarship offers from a number of major schools including Alabama, LSU and Mississippi as a top-rated recruit by scouts and rivals. Media reports have surfaced saying that he died of possibly a self-inflicted gunshot wound after being pulled over by a sheriff's deputy.

It's not clear why 17-year-old Billey Joe Johnson was stopped in Lucedale, but authorities say the junior tailback shot himself with a shotgun after the deputy walked back to the patrol car to run a license check. "The deputy was sitting in his patrol vehicle ... when he heard a gunshot and saw the victim laying on the ground by the driver's side door of the vehicle that Johnson was driving. A shotgun was lying on the victim," according to a statement from the George County Sheriff's Department. Authorities would not immediately say whether they believed the shooting was a suicide or an accident.

The last portion of that quote is particularly perplexing, because it is hard to believe that Johnson would have attempted to pull a shotgun on police officers ...although equally confounding is the notion that Johnson would kill himself at what, according to all current reports, appears to be a basic traffic stop. Nothing is ever certain, but this story appears to be so odd, at least in the manner of death, that it would be even more shocking if further details didn't at least emerge as to why the young man apparently panicked and pulled a gun that resulted in the tragic and early end to his life. Source: Yahoo News

Enter the NAACP, who has said that it has determined through an independent investigation that George County High School football star Billey Joe John son Jr. did not commit suicide last week during a traffic stop in Lucedale, the vice president of the organization's Mississippi chapter said Sunday.

The organization based its findings on interviews with people who knew Johnson and on physical evidence, Clark said, although Clark declined to detail the physical evidence, citing legal concerns. Clark said nothing supports the notion that the junior running back was in the state of mind to kill himself.

The NAACP met with the family and other community members Saturday, Clark said. He said the family is scheduled to meet with District Attorney Tony Lawrence today at his office in Pascagoula. Because a George County deputy was at the scene when Johnson was shot, Sheriff Garry Welford turned the investigation over to Lawrence, who said Friday in his only comment about the investigation that he would not comment again until after meeting with the family. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigations is assisting in the investigation. Source: Gulf Live

Are we really going to take the word of one police officer in the Deep South that a black kid shot himself? No, I couldn't possibly accept that as fact, given what this young man had going for himself and the fact that racism is alive and well in America. Of course, the deputy's identity has not been revealed. Hmmm. I wonder why? Funny, I can't seem to get the images of Emmett Till and others being killed in the Deep South because of the color of their skin and the ghosts of Mississippi out of my mind.