Ex-Pottstown man charged in killing of Berks man
Victim shot during bungled attempt to steal dirt bike, investigators say
More than six years after a 28-year-old Amity Township man was fatally shot in his driveway along Route 422 by a stranger who tried to steal his roommate’s dirt bike, Berks County authorities have announced the filing of first-degree murder charges against a state prison inmate.
County detectives Tuesday charged Darrell A. Johnson, 37, formerly of Pottstown, in the Aug. 6, 2016, killing of Michael W. Shields and pistol-whipping of Shields’ friend.
Johnson, an inmate at the State Correctional Institution-Mahanoy in Frackville, Schuylkill County, has been incarcerated on unrelated charges since shortly after Shields was killed.
District Attorney John T. Adams said Tuesday that Shields’ case remained active through the years.
“This is a case that has always remained on our radar,” he said. “This case never went cold. We were just digging and digging and basically following every lead, and every lead led us back to the person we initially thought was responsible for this homicide.”
Adam said investigators didn’t need to rush the filing of charges because Johnson is serving a 25- to 50-year sentence on robbery charges in West Pottsgrove Township.
Johnson hasn’t been arraigned on the new charges, which include first-, second-, and thirddegree
murder, robbery and related counts.
Shields was shot to death about 9 p.m. in front of the garage at 640 East Ben Franklin Highway, which is Route 422, which Shields used to repair cars for friends, investigators said.
He and his roommate had converted part of the garage into their living quarters, Shields’
close friends told the Reading Eagle in a 2017 article around the anniversary of the killing.
His roommate’s dirt bike was chained to the mailbox at the end of the driveway with a forsale sign to attract prospective buyers.
Just before the shooting, investigators said, the roommate un