Floyd got justice, but what about my son?
It was April 22, 2020, around 7:30 am, when my husband Richard — who had just dropped me off at work an hour earlier — called me and said the words that changed my life and his forever. He said, “Someone shot and killed Josh.”
Words cannot express the feelings I had at that very moment. My heart felt like a shattered glass breaking in pieces. How could it be? Joshua Johnson, my only child, had been shot and killed just four doors down from our home. When we arrived to the scene where Joshua was killed, we could see his lifeless body lying under a white sheet. Like any parent whose child had just been killed, we asked the investigating officer if we could see our son. The response that we received was harsh. Cold. Throughout, this entire encounter would be harsh and cold. It was as if the investigating officer had absolutely no respect or compassion for a grieving family.
To make matters worse, this officer went on to tell us what has become the “official” story of how Joshua was killed. He said that on that morning, around 6 a.m., Joshua — who they later found out was house-sitting for a neighbor and lifelong family friend — walked up to an unmarked vehicle, where a plainclothes deputy sat looking for a capital murder suspect. The investigating officer stated that Joshua had his cellphone and a BB pistol when he walked up to the deputy’s vehicle and failed to lower his BB gun when asked. Then, according to the investigating officer, the deputy shot Joshua once. He went on to tell us, “This is how it happened” and that there’s “no reason to believe it happened any other way.” Those words sent chills up my spine. To think that this investigating officer, Sgt. Allen Beall, could make such a matterof-fact statement after Joshua had been dead less than three hours, without speaking to any witnesses, nor the shooting deputy, and without an autopsy report.
To make matters worse, he went on to say several times on a live recording that he had not spoken to the shooter, Deputy Tu Tran, the officer who shot and killed Joshua. So, the question then became, where did he get his information from? The sheriff ’s office conducted an investigation that day.
According to Beall, there was no one there at the time of the shooting but Joshua and Deputy Tu Tran. We learned, that while there was no one on the street at the time of the shooting, there were several witnesses prior to and immediately after that would contradict the sheriff office’s official story.
It wouldn’t be long before we would start our own investigation into the death of our son. We realized something was seriously wrong, and the killing of our son was more than we could handle. After making many phone calls, the answer to our prayers was Congressman Al Green.
What we discovered was truly shocking. We learned that this was not Tran’s first killing, he had shot and killed another man before and was caught live on video brutally beating a suspect in handcuffs. A grand jury refused to indict him on the killing, but he was suspended for striking the man in handcuffs.
In relation to Joshua’s case, a bullet was discovered the same day of the shooting. The bullet came from Tran’s gun and had struck a neighbor’s garage across the street. Based on where Beall stated the deputy’s vehicle was at the time of the shooting, it would have been impossible to hit the garage door without getting out of his vehicle. The sheriff has insisted that Tran shot Joshua while sitting in his vehicle. This became our focus. If you cannot get the bullet behind the neighbor’s house without getting out of the car, the account given by Beall is totally discredited.
After speaking to several neighbors, we found a mountain of evidence that would contradict the account that Beall and other officials have given. The congressman would then go on setting up several meetings with both Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzales and District Attorney Kim Ogg. In a meeting with Gonzales, he indicated he wouldn’t be a part of any cover-up and that he was only going by what he had been told by his officers. He appeared to be an honest man. I thought to myself, “Maybe he is just going off of what he’s been told.”
All of that changed when we released a live video showing Tran leaving the scene after he shoots Joshua twice, leaving him to sit in his car, bleeding to death. The video also shows when the vehicle returns there are still no emergency vehicles or proper backup call to aid Joshua, who was still waiting for medical assistance. While in the meeting, Gonzales stated that Tran only goes to the stop sign after he shoots Joshua, and it’s at the stop sign that he calls for backup. The video totally contradicts his statement and catches every vehicle that comes to the stop sign within the time frame. Once we knew that Gonzales had seen the video, all trust was gone.
Six weeks had passed before they sent any investigator back to the scene of the shooting, and that was mainly because of the meeting with Congressman Green. The sheriff ’s office then turned over its findings to the DA on Aug. 19 and our attention then turned to Ogg’s office.
As Joshua’s mother, I laid out my concerns to the DA regarding the lack of compassion that we had received during the entire process. We were truly impressed with the DA and her team of investigators.
Ogg stated that she bases every case on facts and evidence, and she believes in justice for all.
It has been nearly six months since that meeting and almost one year since the death of our son. Currently, the case is being heard by a grand jury.
How long does a mother have to suffer and continue to wait to hear the truth about her son who was killed by an officer of the law? Our son was killed before George Floyd, and the former officer who killed Floyd has already been brought to trial and convicted while we are waiting are still waiting for an indictment.
I am praying for the truth to be told and for justice to be served. As we approach one year since my son’s death, we are holding a memorial service in his honor on April 25, 2021 from 3-6 p.m. at Abiding Faith Baptist Church in Missouri City.