Recalls terrible night rushing to hosp after call about shoot
The night a Bronx teen was killed by stray bullets while out celebrating earning her college degree, her mother, unaware yet anything was wrong, was kept awake by an unusual nagging headache.
“I haven’t had a headache for a long time,” Natasha Allen told the Daily News Monday. “I was just here turning and turning in the bed. And then my husband got a phone call.”
The caller spoke loud enough for Allen to overhear: her 19-year-old daughter Tyana Johnson had been shot.
“I was like, ‘What do you mean, shot?’ ” Allen, 41, recalled.
She dialed her daughter’s phone in a panic, but Johnson did not pick up. Allen and her husband raced to their car and drove 65 miles to Jacobi Medical Center from their home in Seymour, Conn.
“The doctor came and he said, ‘There’s a bullet in her brain … there’s like a zero percent chance [she will survive],’ ” Allen said softly, her eyes brimming with tears. “And I just broke down. I couldn’t stand up. My legs were weak. And I cried and
I cried and I cried.”
“I think she was just waiting for me to come in the room, like [for me to] hold her hand while she take her last breath,” said Allen, who wore a blue T-shirt Monday with a photo of Johnson emblazoned on it. “Somebody took everything away, and it hurts so much.” Johnson was struck by multiple stray bullets at Shoelace Park in Wakefield around 11 p.m. Friafter day two men climbed out of a silver BMW and opened fire on the crowd of about 150 young people, surveillance video shows. Johnson had helped organize the event to celebrate graduation.
The men — who also wounded three other revelers — got back in the car with others and drove off. Johnson was rushed to the hospital, but couldn’t be saved. Cops say Johnson was not the intended target.
“That wasn’t for her,” Allen said of the bullets that took her daughter’s life. “I’m angry. I don’t even know what to say. But I want them to turn themselves in.”
There have been no arrests in the tragic case, but Allen trusts justice will come.
“Tyana didn’t deserve this, she was just 19 years old. She didn’t even live her life yet,” the mom said. “I know we’re going to know who did it.”
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said Monday anyone with information needs to come forward.
“This is your neighborhood. This is your block,” Shea said. “No one wants that small number of people that are carrying guns for no reason, whether it’s to a barbecue, a party or anything else.”
Johnson had seen the Friday night party as chance to sell her well-known nutcrackers — a popular homemade boozy drink often sold at city beaches and parks. The Bronx native started marketing her “Tipsy T” line on Instagram last year, featuring flavors like “Polar Blast” and “Buddy Wata.”
The savvy teen recently earned her associate’s degree in business from Monroe College in New Rochelle and was looking forward to a virtual graduation ceremony to be held this Wednesday. She was staying on at the school to pursue her bachelor’s degree in business and finance.
Some of Johnson’s devastated friends went to Allen’s Connecticut home Sunday and left loving messages in orange marker on the side of