Terrance Johnson, 44, male, was driving through the Gentilly area of New Orleans just after midnight on July 13, 2017, when a passing vehicle turned the quiet stretch of the 3900 block of Ford Street into a sudden ambush. He told investigators he heard gunfire as the other car moved alongside, and only then realized he had been hit multiple times in his side.
Emergency crews rushed him to a local hospital, where doctors fought to keep him alive as detectives began piecing together what had happened in the dark, fast-moving moments on Ford Street.
For days, the case sat in that uneasy space between survival and loss. Then, while Johnson remained hospitalized, the shooting continued to draw attention from homicide investigators who traced leads, reviewed information, and worked toward identifying a shooter. On August 3, 2017, Johnson died from his injuries, and what had begun as a nonfatal shooting was formally reclassified as a homicide.
Investigators ultimately focused on Kevin Foots, who had been named publicly as a wanted suspect shortly after the shooting, when authorities said a warrant had been issued for his arrest on an attempted-murder charge. As the investigation progressed, detectives said they were able to positively identify Foots as the perpetrator and secured an arrest warrant tied to the homicide after Johnson’s death. Nearly a year later, on July 30, 2018, members of the New Orleans Police Department’s Violent Offender Warrant Squad, working alongside the U.S. Marshals, located Foots at a residence in the 100 block of Airport Road in Ama, Louisiana, and took him into custody.
After the arrest, authorities indicated Foots would be booked into the Orleans Parish Justice Center on a charge of second-degree murder in connection with Johnson’s death. Public statements surrounding the arrest described the case as moving from an attempted-murder investigation to a homicide prosecution once Johnson succumbed to his wounds, with the charge reflecting that shift. No further publicly available details from the reviewed sources described a trial outcome or conviction, but the arrest marked the point when detectives said the long-running investigation had narrowed to a single named suspect now facing a murder charge.
