On the evening of April 14, 2021, Donterrius Johnson, a 31-year-old male and a rising rapper in the Memphis music scene known as Mendenhall 2x, found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. As he was walking out of a Valero gas station on Knight Arnold, his life was tragically cut short in a hail of gunfire. Johnson was pronounced dead at the scene from gunshot wounds.
He was an unintended victim in a dispute that had nothing to do with him, a bystander caught in the crossfire.
The incident that led to Johnson's death began earlier that day when a man named Noah Jones reported his Chevrolet Camaro had been stolen at gunpoint. Later that evening, the stolen vehicle was driven to the Valero gas station by 15-year-old Babacai Diatta. Shortly after Diatta arrived, four individuals pulled up and opened fire. Both Diatta and Johnson, who was simply leaving the store, were struck. Diatta was rushed to a local hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries. Friends and fellow artists of Johnson maintained that he was not involved with the stolen car and was killed senselessly.
The investigation into the double homicide moved swiftly. Police identified 20-year-old Noah Jones, the owner of the stolen car, as a primary suspect. According to detectives, Jones admitted to being at the gas station and firing his weapon. He was subsequently arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder and reckless endangerment.
In the days that followed, U.S. Marshals apprehended three other suspects in connection with the fatal shooting. Deandre Wilbourne and Deonn Wilbourne surrendered to investigators on April 23, 2021, and Christopher Burkes turned himself in the next day. The arrests brought some measure of progress in a case that had stolen a promising musical talent and a teenager from the community.
