In the fall of 2015, a promising young man's life was tragically cut short in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Darius Johnson, a 23-year-old male, was killed on Thursday, October 29, 2015, an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire of a senseless dispute. He was a student of information technology at a local vocational college and also helped with the cleanup of the LSU campus following home football games.
On that Thursday afternoon, a physical altercation erupted at a BREC park near
Johnson's residence. The fistfight escalated into a gunfight, and during the exchange of gunfire, Johnson was struck. Surveillance footage captured him stumbling back to his property before collapsing in his backyard, where he was discovered around 4 p.m. Emergency responders pronounced him dead at the scene. His family mourned the loss of a young man who they described as an innocent victim.
In the wake of the shooting, the Baton Rouge Police Department launched an investigation that led to the identification of three suspects. Authorities named 19-year-old Dyshun Winns, 23-year-old Alexander Brock, and 28-year-old Marcus Gillard as the individuals connected to Johnson's death. All three were wanted on charges of second-degree murder.
Law enforcement officials were successful in apprehending two of the three suspects. Dyshun Winns was taken into custody in the week following the incident. Shortly after, Marcus Gillard was also arrested. At the time of these arrests, the search for Alexander Brock was still ongoing. The arrests brought a measure of progress in a case that had tragically ended a young life with a bright future.
