The investigation into the death of 22-year-old Laquan Johnson began on September 27, 2016, following a shooting incident at a residence in Conway, South Carolina. Law enforcement officials responded to a report of a shooting at a home in Horry County, where they discovered that Johnson had been fatally wounded. The incident, which was initially reported in some outlets in connection with a burglary, was quickly determined to be a homicide.
Johnson, a Black / African American male, was a father of two children, one of whom was born shortly after his passing.
Detectives soon identified a suspect who was intimately known to the victim and his family. Police arrested 22-year-old Javon Dion Gibbs, a close friend of Johnson since middle school. According to Johnson’s mother, Gibbs was a frequent guest in their home, often eating at their dinner table and even sleeping there when he had nowhere else to go. She expressed deep heartbreak during court proceedings, noting the betrayal of a man her son had treated like a brother.
Authorities charged Gibbs with murder, kidnapping, and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in connection with Johnson’s death. He was also charged with trafficking cocaine after police reportedly found drugs in his possession at the time of his arrest. During a bond hearing in December 2016, a judge denied bond for Gibbs due to the severity of the charges. At the time of his arrest for Johnson's murder, Gibbs was already free on bond as a suspect in a separate, high-profile case involving the 2013 disappearance and presumed murder of another local man, Zachary Malinowski.
