Family Claims Cover Up In Football Star’s Death

Mississippi Lucedale  The family of a football star who died during a traffic stop wants the FBI to investigate.
by Jessica Taloney
Published: Thu, February 26, 2009 - 4:41 pm CST Last Updated: Thu, February 26, 2009 - 6:46 pm CST
Standing in front of the George County Courthouse, Billey Joe Johnson, Jr.'s family makes yet another plea.

"I'm pretty sure there is somebody out there that knew a little bit about what happened in this situation that could help us," says Johnson's sister.

Two weeks after a Grand Jury determined the 17 year old football star accidentally shot himself during a traffic stop, his family insists there is more to the story.

"He wasn't killed where they say he was," says Annette Johnson, Billey Joe's mother. "They killed him somewhere else, I don't know where."

The Johnson's won't say who they think killed Billey Joe, but they have previously pointed fingers at the George County deputy who pulled him over. They've also dropped hints that race was the motive.

"He has too many years of experience with a shotgun to just all of the sudden, leaving a young white girls house, supposedly running a red light or a stop sign then accidentally shooting himself. It doesn't add up," says Veronica Fairley, who insists the District Attorney's office and the Sheriff are covering up her cousin's murder.

The George County Sheriff's Office turned the case over to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation on day one, and after hearing from 30 witnesses and examining 65 pieces of evidence, a Grand Jury determined Johnson died from an accidental self-inflicted gun shot wound.

"I have no reason to doubt my officer, none what so ever," says Sheriff Garry Welford.

At the request of the family, District Attorney Tony Lawrence has handed the evidence to the FBI, but there is no word on whether the federal agency will get involved. In the meantime, the Johnson family says they will go to the state capitol next week hoping to get someone's attention.

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Sirk, I haven’t heard any information disputing what the forensic report stated. I haven’t heard the family saying how or what they know. I would think we would hear accusations with some facts thrown in just to keep the ignorant busy gnawing.

I don’t trust the local LE and I don’t believe they are smart enough to have covered all their bases and fooled so many experts.

SHOW ME THE MONEY Bama. I’ve read your posts. You’ve never come up with a plausible explanation on how this epic cover-up occurred.

He’s been too quiet.  He must have this long rampage that he is fixing to spit out about us being racist again.

Bama, check the grassy knoll. There might be another weapon hidden or possibly a video of the incident.

Way to go Southfan.  That’s a good one. I have always joked about Mississippi people not being that smart and I do it because it makes my kinfolks mad because they are from Mississippi.  But dang, I guess I was wrong all those years.  They really are smarter than a 5th grader.

Bama, how did you get the impression there were cartwheels done on the scene? Was the guy shot while he was doing these cartwheels there at the scene or somewhere else as the family contends? Did the officer have a friend do the shooting, place the body, shoot the door of the truck (adding brain matter to the impact site), wipe up the weapon but leave Mr. Johnson’s DNA, keep an eye out for potential witnesses (this is where the entire sheriff’s office becomes involved in the conspiracy), then sprinkle more gun shot residue on the new shooting site to match the dispersal zone of the shotgun? It sounds like the George County law enforcement personnel are genius. Apparently, they paid attention at those continuing education sessions in forensic science and they read all the who dunnit novels they could ingest because they managed to dupe the Missippi Bureau of Investigation and FOOLED the FBI. ROLLS MY EYES!

no way an LE wants you to handle your gun around him. no way the cop was near the truck when the gun went off for many reasons some for which the is proof and that is a fact

The victim was 17 years old.  You never will know what was going through his mind.  You never know what is going through an adult’s mind most of the time, but you could never figure out a teenager no matter how hard you tried.

Yep, that’s a good scenario Bob.  Go ahead and call Jessie and tell him you figured it out.

I know hard to see through those small eye holes.

Night fellas, Have to go sleep now, see both of you in the morning bob.

Did the deputy tell BJ to get the gun out of his truck?

If you actually did read my comments, you would know I’ve said it was not a suicide.  I also said several times it could have been a freak accident of some sort.

The only accident theory I have heard is that he was standing (or stooping) outside his truck and reached in with his left hand and tried to pull the gun out.  No one can make sense of that scenario and at least two of you have admitted keeping guns in your vehicles and said you would never pull the gun out on a cop.  You would simply tell the officer that you had the weapon, etc.

For some reason that works for you, but not for BJ.  He must have got out of that truck, cut a few cartwheels and grabbed a shotgun and started to do a some kind of rifle twirl for the deputy.

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