I too feel sorry for the dog
fatelvis
Dozens pay respects to Douglass High football
standout who hoped to go pro.
Joshua B. Good - Staff
Monday, September 20, 1999
Julian Johnson stood on his front porch Sunday, shaking the hands of
three dozen teenagers who knew his son.
"I was Mario's friend," one girl said, smiling as she took Johnson's
hand.
On the day after Julian DeMario Johnson, 16, was shot and killed on
I-20 in Atlanta, it was obvious the Douglass High School football star
had lots of friends who called him Mario.
"That smile. I remember the smile. And the laughing, he was always
laughing," said Parthina Steele, 16, who was in Mario's homeroom class
at Douglass High.
"He was cool with everyone," added Crystal Hines, 16. "That's why I
can't tell you why someone would shoot him."
On Sunday, Atlanta police homicide detectives had not figured out why,
either, though they received some good tips they hope will lead to an
arrest of the killers.
At first they thought Mario was killed in a failed robbery attempt. But
on Sunday that looked doubtful.
Mario and his friend, Rosoid Martin, 16, left Douglass High on Hamilton
E. Holmes Drive with another friend after their team defeated
Tri-Cities High School.
They went to Arrow Creek Apartments on Flat Shoals Road and dropped off
their friend. They were leaving just before 2 a.m. Saturday when
several cars blocked them in, said Sgt. Keith Meadows, an Atlanta
police homicide squad supervisor.
Rosoid drove around the cars. "No words were exchanged. They didn't say
'Give up the car,' or anything like that," Meadows said.
As Rosoid drove away, a dark gray or blue Oldsmobile Cutlass or
Chevrolet Caprice followed. Rosoid drove onto I-20 and the car pulled
beside him. Two or three shots were fired. One hit Mario in the neck,
killing him.
A witness told police the young men in the car wore bandanas on their
heads. Meadows said other tips, which he declined to publicly discuss,
may help locate the killers.
On Sunday afternoon, about 50 people visited the Johnson home to
remember Mario.
He was the youngest of four children. One of his two brothers, Erin
Johnson, 25, shared Mario's dream of making it big in football.
"I was planning on being his agent," Erin Johnson said.
Mario's coach, Butch Climmons, said he was small, 5 feet 5 inches and
160 pounds. But he was fast. In a game against Dunwoody High School,
Mario rushed for 165 yards in four possessions, scored two touchdowns
and caught two passes. In Friday night's game, he carried the ball five
times for 65 yards.
"He would have been a scholarship candidate," Climmons said.
His mother, Barbara Johnson, is a kindergarten teacher and continually
reminded Mario there was more to life than football.
She had to remind him about his studies, too.
With football, a part-time job at Rahim's Peyton Seafood restaurant and
his cheerleading squad girlfriend, Mario did not dedicate as much time
to his classes as his mother would have liked.
"I used to pull my hair out with him," Barbara Johnson said.
At 16, Mario had not made up his mind about a profession, but he liked
animals.
"He talked about veterinary medicine," Barbara Johnson said. "He was
always out in the yard with the critters and birds. He'd bring up all
sorts of things out of the creek. I'd say, 'What is this here?' "
Mario's favorite animal was his dog, Dino, a black mutt. Sunday, Dino
sat at the chain-link gate to the Johnson's back yard, watching
silently as streams of teenagers walked by.
His tail did not wag.
His buddy Mario wasn't among those teens.
http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/epaper/editions/today/local_news_3.html
How long are you people going to let this kind of slaughter go on
without doing something about it.
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