Do you know who murdered Mitchell Johnson? On a late spring evening in Washington, D.C., the tranquility of the Franklin Commons apartment complex was shattered by violence. On Thursday, May 23, 2002, police were called to a second-floor apartment in the 100 block of Franklin Street NE around 10:30 p.m. to investigate reports of a shooting. Inside, they discovered a grim scene: three men, including 25-year-old Mitchell Johnson, also known as 'MickMo,' were found deceased.
Johnson, along with Elvon 'Smoke' Miller, 21, and Daniel
'Ears' Dimoh, 21, had been shot multiple times at close range to the head and body. A source familiar with the scene described it as very bloody. Miller and Johnson were residents of the same block, while Dimoh lived in another part of the city. The three men were pronounced dead at the scene by the D.C. Medical Examiner's Office in the early hours of the following morning. The motive for the brutal slayings was not immediately clear to investigators, and it was unknown if one or multiple assailants were involved.
In the days following the triple homicide, residents of the normally quiet neighborhood expressed their unease. Some had noticed an increase in unfamiliar traffic in and out of the building where the men were killed and had reported recent break-ins. Both Mitchell Johnson and Elvon Miller had prior criminal records. In 1997, Johnson had been convicted of carrying a pistol without a license.
Despite the violent nature of the crime, no arrests have been made in the years since the shooting. The case remains an unsolved homicide, leaving the community and the families of the victims without answers. The Metropolitan Police Department has offered a substantial reward for any information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the deaths of Mitchell Johnson, Elvon Miller, and Daniel Dimoh. The investigation into the triple murder is ongoing.
