On a tragic evening in Chestertown, Maryland, the life of Kenneth Preston Johnson Jr., a 36-year-old male, was cut short. The events unfolded on June 7, 2018, when deputies from the Queen Anne's County Sheriff's Office responded to a 911 hang-up call at a residence on Woodstock Road at approximately 9:19 PM.
Upon their arrival, deputies were met by an injured and distressed woman outside the home.
She informed them that she had been involved in a physical altercation with her husband, Charles Frank Walter Jr., who was 54 years old. In a horrifying turn of events, she reported that Walter had shot her son, Kenneth Preston Johnson Jr., who was still inside the house.
While at the scene, law enforcement observed a male subject, identified as Walter, outside the residence armed with a pistol held to his own chin. Deputies ordered him to surrender peacefully, but he fled and barricaded himself inside a shed on the property. After securing a perimeter around the shed, deputies entered the main residence to check on Johnson. They found him deceased on a bedroom floor with what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds. The female victim, Johnson's mother, was transported to a local hospital for treatment of her injuries.
The Queen Anne's County Office of the Sheriff's SWAT Team was called to the scene to address the standoff with the barricaded suspect. After breaching the shed, they discovered Charles Frank Walter Jr. deceased from what was determined to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The incident was investigated as a homicide, with Walter identified as the suspect in the shooting death of his stepson, Kenneth Johnson Jr.
