Marcus Antonio, a 24-year-old male from Eagle Butte, South Dakota, was killed late on January 12, 2019, after a gunshot tore through the quiet of the No Heart housing area. The night began with a small group of teenagers drinking at a nearby home, where an argument escalated and spilled outside into the yard. In the chaos, a handgun came out, and a shot rang into the dark.
Hearing the gunfire next door, Marcus stepped out from a neighboring house at No. 684 to find out what was happening. He confronted the strangers outside, telling them to leave, while another person from his home followed him out. Words flew back and forth across the gap between the houses, and in an instant the standoff turned lethal: Dante Johnson raised the handgun with both hands and fired into Marcus's chest. Marcus staggered back inside, collapsed in the kitchen, and died from the wound. Tribal law enforcement received the dispatch at 11:28 p.m., arrived within minutes, and found him unresponsive; he was pronounced dead around midnight.
In the immediate aftermath, the shooter and another juvenile fled the scene, and the gun did not simply disappear into the night—it followed them. Court records describe Johnson reloading and then using the weapon to intimidate others afterward, including threatening the companion who had been with him unless he stayed close. The pair went to a residence tied to relatives, where witnesses later described Johnson arriving distraught, crying, and saying he had shot someone; there, another tense flare-up ended only when someone intervened and took the gun away.
As authorities closed in, federal involvement became public: a warrant was issued, and the FBI announced a reward for information leading to the teen's arrest, saying he was believed to be on or near the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. Within days, he was tracked to Rapid City, where police arrested the 16-year-old suspect.
The case moved through federal court because the shooting took place in Indian country, and prosecutors initially filed juvenile charges that included second-degree murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, and a firearm charge tied to a crime of violence. After extensive hearings, a federal judge granted the government's request to transfer the matter to adult court. The prosecution ultimately resulted in Johnson pleading guilty in 2020, and on August 17, 2020, he was sentenced in federal court to 15 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, followed by five years of supervised release.
