As protestors chanted, “Black lives matter,” at the Ferguson Police Department on Wednesday night, March 11, another black life was lost a few miles east down West Florissant Avenue.
Marcus Johnson, a 6-year-old black boy, was riding in a minivan with four other children and three adults after leaving O’Fallon Park in North St. Louis at around 7:30 p.m. They were driving westbound on West Florissant when unknown occupants in a dark-colored sedan began firing shots at their vehicle, according to the police report.
Johnson was shot in the chest. A 15-year-old black boy was hit in the ankle and a 69-year-old white man was shot in the knee.
Lt. John Green, commander of homicide for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police, told The American that the family was fired upon for unknown reasons, and the father of the family, who was driving, returned fire while the vehicles were in motion.
Don Re, one of the St. Louis police officers who responded to the scene, wrote a blog post about trying to save the boy’s life.
“EMS was coming, but they were too far away,” he wrote. “It was too risky to wait for them, so we raced that little guy to the hospital in record time. We had all sorts of cars shutting down the route to the hospital, just like we would were a fellow cop shot and in need of medical care. That’s about the highest honor we can give a person, and this boy deserved it.”
Re arrived at Children’s Hospital moments after the officers carrying Johnson pulled up. Re watched as an officer hurried from his seat and opened the back, driver’s side door. The officer grabbed the boy from the back seat and placed him over his shoulder, like a dad would “his sleeping boy,” he said.
“The officer, an around 50-year-old white guy, clutched the little boy over his left shoulder gently, but with a clear purpose,” Re wrote. “The boy was small, a black child with his hair in corn rows and dressed as a typical 5- or 6-year-old dresses. He reminded me of my own 6-year-old son.”
He wrote about the sadness that all the officers felt when the boy didn’t make it and seeing another child lost to violence.
“This is all too sad and it needs to stop,” Re wrote. “Someone please figure out how.”
After watching a news report, Alderman Antonio French (Ward 21) called Ronald Jones at the Ronald L. Jones Funeral Chapel to find out how much funeral costs would be for the family.
Jones told him that he had reduced the costs, but it would still be $5,000. French set up a Go Fund Me account and by Saturday, they had reached that goal.
“That night was the vigil,” French said, speaking of the March 14 vigil for Johnson. “That’s when we found the mom and dad and told them that we will have the funeral costs covered. The mom was in tears, and the dad gave me a big hug.”
Chris Carter, alderman of the 27th Ward where the family lives, said he talked to the family a few hours after the incident. Johnson had a history of heart problems and was recovering from a heart procedure the previous week.
Carter said that street violence is getting more brutal. “Back in the day,” he said, “there were rules” and an entire family would not be fired on over a dispute.
“It just shows that they don’t care,” Carter said. “It’s just sad.”
Green encouraged anyone with any information about the shooting to call CrimeStoppers at 314-725-8477 or via http://stlrcs.org/.
Johnson’s funeral service will be at 1 p.m. Thursday, March 19 at Ronald L. Jones Funeral Chapel, 2161 East Fair Ave.
