Natural Causes or Hate Crime? Public React's to Black Teen’s Suspicious Cause of Death
The verdict is in for the official cause of death of 16-year-old Justin Johnson. Though the medical examiner concluded he died of natural causes, rumors still reel over whether he died by the hands of a group of racist white boys.
Lower Paxton Township, Pa. police say the evening of April 26, around 8:20 p.m., a white teen rang the doorbell of Justin’s home. His father told police his son left the home to go play tag with his friends in the neighborhood. Video footage shows Justin leaving with the other boy. Over the next 15 minutes, Justin and another boy were seen running past the house and occasionally walking across the lawn into the street.
In another clip, Justin is jetting from what appears to be four white teens and slides into a bank and into a field-like area. The teens are heard laughing and one yells, “He’s going to f-cking Africa!”
In the following video, Justin comes to the porch using his phone and then finally goes back inside the home. By 9:27 p.m., Justin’s father told the police he tried to contact his son but couldn’t reach him. However, when he returned home 30 minutes later, he says he found his son unresponsive.
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He immediately calls 911 and begins CPR. Lower Paxton Bureau of Police and took over CPR until South Central EMS arrived and took over care of Justin. He was transported to Hershey Medical Center and was later pronounced deceased at about 11:53 p.m.
During the initial investigation, there were no signs of forced entry into the home and no indication that anyone else had entered the home with Justin, according to police.
The Dauphin County Coroner’s office ruled Justin’s official cause of death as complications from sickle cell disease with additional cardiomyopathy issues.
However, the internet is still reeling over the leaked surveillance footage. The public has torn about the videos frame by frame, trying to identify the teens, and eventually landed on their own conclusion about what happened: Justin’s death was a racially motivated crime.
“This is horrible, disgusting & sad. I’m sure the parents will try & downplay this. They need to be charged with a hate crime,” wrote one Facebook user.
“I’m not trying to illicit any ill will, it’s absolutely disgusting 100% whether it was said or not. This poor family and child deserve so much better. Any child that wants a chance at being on a team deserves better,” wrote another.
Police say they are investigating the clips to get a proper account of the chain of events leading up to Justin’s death and pulling in the school district for additional information. Johnson’s family hired a private attorney to investigate as well.
