On July 26, 2015, Joseph Johnson was found deceased on the side of Dallas County Road 209 and Alabama Highway 14 after an apparent hit-and-run. In the predawn hours of July 26, 2015, the body of 26-year-old Joseph Johnson, a Caucasian male, was discovered on a desolate stretch of Alabama Highway 14 West near the intersection of Dallas County Road 209. The night before, on July 25, 2015, Johnson had borrowed his father's truck to visit a friend in Selma. He and his friend, along with the friend's girlfriend, spent some time at Roger's Lounge.
According to the accounts given to Johnson's mother, an argument erupted between the
friend and his girlfriend on the way to the friend's house. The girlfriend was reportedly dropped off at Gabe's Store, a convenience store. Johnson, who had been asleep in the vehicle, woke up shortly before they reached the friend's home and, upon learning the girlfriend was walking alone, insisted on going back to find her. He was never seen alive again. His body was found by a passing motorist around 2:30 a.m. Alabama State Troopers initially believed Johnson may have been under the influence of alcohol and fallen asleep on the unlit roadway, leading to a fatal hit-and-run. To date, the driver responsible has not come forward, and investigators have been unable to identify a suspect vehicle, leaving the case unsolved.
In a separate and unrelated case, 24-year-old Joe Johnson was found deceased on October 10, 2021, in a vacant lot on South Wilson Avenue in Prichard, Alabama, having sustained multiple gunshot wounds. Investigators believed robbery may have been the motive. In December 2021, authorities arrested 18-year-old Anthony McCall in connection with the murder. A second suspect, 22-year-old Cabarri Washington, was arrested in May 2023.
A detective testified during a preliminary hearing that both Johnson and McCall were at the Stadium Bar in Mobile on the night of October 9, 2021. In the early hours of the next day, Johnson went to a club in Prichard where McCall allegedly shot him. According to testimony, after being shot, Johnson attempted to flee but was shot at again by another individual and was subsequently run over by a car. Surveillance footage reportedly captured McCall firing the shots. Anthony McCall's case was bound over to a grand jury, and he is awaiting trial. Joe Johnson was a father of four.
