Tears for bar vic
Well-liked mechanic dies 10 days after punch in B’klyn tiff
A beloved Brooklyn auto mechanic was jumped by three men following a misunderstanding in a local bar, hit his head and died, police and relatives said Wednesday.
Lenford Johnson hit his head on the sidewalk after being punched in the face outside the Carribbean American Entertainment Center on Nostrand Ave. near Tilden Ave. in East Flatbush about 3 a.m. Nov. 7.
Johnson, 62, was rushed to Kings County Hospital, where he lingered on life support until Tuesday.
“Everybody is crying,” said a neighbor who declined to give her name. “They say big men don’t cry, but every big man is crying now. The whole neighborhood knew him and loved him.”
Johnson’s stepdaughter Tracy Lewin said the tragic encounter started with an argument over a supposed slight to a woman in the bar.
“The girl called someone and a guy came with two others and said, ‘That’s my sister. What did you say to my sister?’ Lenford said he didn’t say anything,” Lewin, 43, told the Daily News.
“The guy turned to the other two guys and said, ‘ Should I give him the usual?’ The other guys said yes, and the guy punched him. He gave him ‘the usual’ and Lenford dropped to the floor.”
Johnson clung to life for 10 days at the hospital.
“He wasn’t able to talk in the hospital,” Lewin said. “He had bleeding to the brain. The doctors gave him a 1% chance.” No arrests have been made. The sad details of Johnson’s death could not obscure the good cheer he spread in life among his friends and family.
He was well-liked at the Coney Island garage where he worked. “He was one of the quietest chill guys with good energy that I’ve had working here,” said Gino, the manager at Brooklyn Motors. “No job was too big. He loved his work and was very good at what he did.”
Johnson treasured cooking for friends to some reggae at his backyard barbecue behind his home, where he had a grill made from a 50-gallon drum cut in half, just a few blocks from the bar.
“He loved to feed people. We have a backyard, and that’s everyone’s spot,” the stepdaughter said. “He was frying fish, making festival [Jamaican fried dough] before he even went to the bar.”
He also took pleasure in fixing the cars of friends even if they didn’t have the money to pay him right away.
“Every day he cooked to feed his friends and drink and have a good time,” Lewin said. “He didn’t deserve to go like that.”
Johnson, whose nicknme was “Bagga,” was born and raised in St. Ann Parish in Jamaica and immigrated to the U.S. about 20 years ago. He worked as a chef on a cruise ship before settling into his career as a mechanic. He married his wife, Joan McCalla Johnson, 38 years ago.
“She’s feeling terrible,”
Lewin said of her mother.
Friends and family have planned a vigil for Wednesday night in Johnson’s honor. Probably some food will be cooked and some joy will be felt at having known him, his loved ones said.
“When we learned he passed, more than half my guys literally cried with tears,” Gino the auto shop manager said. “I can’t even imagine anyone getting physical with him. He was the last person I ever expected to hear that about.”