Billey Joe Johnson's tragic death at a traffic stop in Mississippi a few months ago drew enough attention to garner NAACP involvement. Additionally, there was enough suspicion surrounding the circumstances of his passing that a grand jury was convened to gather information and decide if the shotgun round that killed him was fired on accident or purposefully.
Billey Joe Johnson's recent and mysterious death has generated a ton of national attention. First, the NAACP stepped in with an independent investigation, circumventing the normal police process, and determined that Johnson's death was not a suicide."There has been so much speculation in the community surrounding the circumstances of the death of one the most respected high school athletic stars in the area," says Jerome Carter, with The Cochran Firm Mobile.All of this isn't to say that something related to foul play happened, but as I said before, it would have been shocking if the NAACP conducted their investigation, determined suicide wasn't the cause of death and then just moved on.
"The family cannot understand why their son would take his own life with such a bright future ahead of him," continued Carter. "They are looking for answers."
Billey Joe Johnson, Dec. 8: The High school football star from Missippi died at a police stop.
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"The NAACP, along with the family, have determined that Billey Joe Johnson did not commit suicide," Clark said.Obviously there are a lot of bizarre circumstances involved here, the most bizarre of which is clearly the reason for Johnson's death. Johnson, by all accounts, had everything going for him and was heading to college soon. The only feasible explanation for him panicking at being stopped by the police would involve him being involved in some other pseudo-criminal-related activity (or even simply possession of a gun), yet the police have made absolutely no mention of the possibility that he was violating a law.
The NAACP's conclusion does not rule out the possibility that Johnson accidentally shot himself, Clark said.
"At this point, nothing is concrete until the results of the autopsies have been made known," Clark said.
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.
Billey Joe Johnson was considered one of the top high school football recruits in Mississippi, as well as the country, until his shocking death early Monday morning. 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 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.
"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.
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