Yoashica Johnson-McKeithan, a 48-year-old Black woman from Linden, North Carolina, was shot and killed late on the night of June 21, 2025, at a crowded birthday party on Bethea Road in the Shawtown community of Lillington. Deputies were called around 11:36 p.m., finding a chaotic scene with nearly 200 people in attendance. Paramedics pronounced Yoashica Johnson-McKeithan dead at the scene. Two other people were shot and seriously wounded amid the gunfire.
According to court documents described by local reporters, one wounded man was identified as Timothy Maurice Elliot; another victim was listed as Albany Little. Both were transported to Womack Army Medical Center. Family said Yoashica Johnson-McKeithan had only just arrived to celebrate her cousin’s birthday when shots rang out, and several relatives, including her son and husband, witnessed the immediate aftermath.
Investigators quickly focused on a Lillington resident, 27-year-old Moashaun Lafarr Bristow. He was arrested days after the shooting and charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury, and felony conspiracy to commit attempted first-degree murder. Warrants also named a second suspect, Christonn Bristow, as a co-conspirator; authorities said he remained at large at that time.
Officials and news accounts noted that, at the time of the Lillington shooting, Moashaun Bristow was already out on bond awaiting trial in a separate 2021 homicide case in Spring Lake, the killing of Adam Antonio Vazquez. The arrest in Yoashica Johnson-McKeithan’s case intensified public scrutiny over his release on bond in the earlier case and added urgency to deputies’ search for the second suspect.
In the days that followed, tributes and obituary notices remembered Yoashica Johnson-McKeithan as a 48-year-old wife, mother, and Harnett Central graduate whose funeral was held in Lillington. Her death remained under active investigation, with the sheriff’s office urging anyone with information about the shooting to come forward.
