Grand jury clears deputy involved in death of George County High football player
Editor’s note: This story originally published Feb. 12, 2009. The Sun Herald did not identify his girlfriend as white. Her race is now being included as the NAACP and Black communities on the Coast are in 2020 renewing questions surrounding the facts of the case.
A George County grand jury has determined that the only plausible explanation for the Dec. 8, 2009, shooting death of Billey Joe Johnson Jr. was that that the shooting was accidental.
The grand jury cleared George County Sheriff s Deputy Joe Sullivan of any wrongdoing, saying “Deputy Joe Sullivan could not have shot and killed Billey Joe Johnson Jr.”
The grand jury also determined that the 17-year-old George County High School running back was not actually trying to break into a former girlfriend’s home minutes before the sheriff’s deputy stopped him for a traffic violation. Instead, they believe he was simply stopping by his former girlfriend’s home to say hello.
The grand jury determined that no criminal wrongdoing occurred the morning of Dec. 8, when Johnson Jr. died of a shotgun wound after a sheriff s deputy pulled him over.
The courtroom was silent as the foreperson read the grand jury’s findings that Sullivan was not involved in Johnson’s death. The report said that the grand jury had pieced together eyewitness accounts to determine that Sullivan was still in his patrol car when Johnson was shot.
Johnson’s family was given details from the report before it was read in open court.
Eleven members of Johnson’s immediate family attended the proceeding. About 100 people were in the courtroom. Most were black. Only four were white.
Judge Robert Krebs made it clear that when he took the bench that decorum would be maintained: “The court is mindful of the seriousness of this matter and the court is not insensitive to the loss and pain. However, we are in a court of law and there is and will be order.”
A grand jury is comprised of residents randomly selected to serve and hear evidence in criminal cases in their county to determine if there was sufficient evidence of a crime.
Johnson died of a gunshot wound to the head shortly after Sullivan pulled him over on Mississippi 26 at Benndale Carpet for running a stop sign and a red light.
Sullivan wrote in his report that he was at his patrol car when he heard a gunshot and breaking glass and then saw Johnson on the ground outside his truck with a shotgun on top of him. Johnson was pronounced dead at the scene, and George County Sheriff Garry Welford said afterwards that it appeared Johnson died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigations was called in to do an independent investigation.
Johnson’s parents, Billey Joe Johnson Sr. and his wife, Annette, do not believe their son killed himself because he already was looking forward to a promising collegiate football career, having been offered scholarships to several colleges, including LSU and Auburn. He also, they said, showed no signs of depression.
The morning of the shooting, Johnson’s father said his son was up at 4:30 a.m. taking a shower, and was out the door between 5:10 and 5:12 a.m. cranking up his truck and pouring water over the windshield to remove the frost. Johnson Sr. said his son was going deer hunting, something he often did before he went to school.
But the same morning, Johnson’s ex-girlfriend, also a student at George County High School, accused him of attempting to break into her father s home on Lamar Street in Lucedale.
The Lucedale Police Department report of the incident said that minutes before Johnson was stopped, he had been named a suspect in an alleged burglary in progress at the girl’s father’s home. The girl, the report said, was home alone when she called her mother for help.
The girl’s mother, Esther Parker, then called Lucedale police to report the incident. The report said the girl wanted to sign charges, and police officers were escorting her and her mother in her mother’s car to the Police Department when George County sheriff s deputies radioed in, saying there had been a traffic stop with gunfire involved. The Lucedale police officers escorting the mother and daughter then left the escort and headed to the traffic stop, where Johnson died.
This story was originally published February 12, 2009 at 12:00 AM.
