5 Things To Know About Dion Johnson, Laid To Rest Phoenix Friday

PHOENIX, AZ — At 5:30 in the morning of Memorial Day, Dion Johnson was sleeping in his car on the side of a north Phoenix highway when he was approached by a trooper with the Arizona Department of Public Safety. Five minutes later, Johnson was on the ground, handcuffed and suffering a wound from the trooper's gunfire — and soon after, Johnson was dead.

Johnson, who was 28 years old, was buried Friday after a funeral service held at the Elevate Church in Phoenix. His death has been marked by protests and calls for police reform.

Of course, Johnson wasn't the only black man whose death during a police encounter on May 25 sparked outrage. Later that same day, 1,700 miles away, George Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes. Protests erupted across the country — but in Phoenix, the protest crowds chanted Johnson's name along with Floyd's. Last week, hundreds attended Johnson's vigil.

But while Floyd's death was captured on bystander-shot video from just a few feet away, there were no such bystanders to Johnson's death. Unlike Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis officer who kneeled on Floyd's neck and who now faces charges for second-degree murder, the trooper who shot Johnson has not been named or charged. According to police, he is a 54-year-old trooper with 15 years of service.

Key aspects of the incident remain shrouded by the ongoing investigation by the Phoenix Police Department. Here are five things to know about Dion Johnson:

1. He was asleep inside a car.

According to a statement released by the Phoenix Police Department, the unnamed DPS trooper approached Johnson's vehicle after spotting it in the area of the State Route 101 and Tatum Boulevard where it was blocking part of the on-ramp. Johnson was "passed out in the driver's seat."

"The Trooper smelled an odor of alcohol, saw beer cans and a gun in the vehicle," the department said, though, as Johnson's attorneys later pointed out, audio from the trooper's dispatch call that was uploaded to YouTube does not include mention of a weapon. Rather, the trooper can be heard saying, "Just for record, there's a heavy odor of alcoholic beverage, he's urinated on himself, and there's probably open containers in the vehicle — there is."

Soon after, an employee with the Arizona Department of Transportation monitoring the live camera feed can also be heard on the dispatch call, alerting the dispatcher "that motor unit is fighting with the guy at Tatum."

2. His final moments were captured on an ADOT camera.

The audio of the trooper's dispatch call includes the trooper calling out "shots fired," but no known footage exists of the moments that led up to it. The trooper was not wearing a body camera and his motorcycle was not equipped with a dashcam.

However, we can see the moments that followed: The Arizona Department of Transportation maintains live feeds of the state's highways, and though it doesn't automatically record that video, a reporter from AZ Family was listening to the dispatch call and hit record just in time to preserve the footage of the aftermath

3. He was shot after reaching for the trooper's gun, the trooper claims.

The only available account of the shooting comes from the trooper who shot Johnson. The Phoenix police statement on the incident described the trooper removing the gun he spotted in Johnson's vehicle. Then he returned "to arrest Mr. Johnson for suspicion of driving impaired."

But something interrupted the arrest. According to police, Johnson grabbed the trooper through the open driver's side door, triggering an "altercation" as Johnson pulled the trooper toward the vehicle. The trooper told investigators "he feared he would be pushed into oncoming traffic, so he drew his weapon and issued commands."

Johnson is said to have complied with those commands, but as the trooper holstered his gun, he claimed Johnson "reached for the gun and a second altercation ensued."

The police statement continues: "The Trooper, fearing for his life, then fired his service weapon striking Mr. Johnson."

4. He was alive after being shot, but he was left on the ground.

Although the ADOT footage preserved by AZ Family didn't show the shooting itself, it revealed something else that shocked the family and their representatives: For minutes, Johnson can be seen moving on the ground, handcuffed on the ground outside his car. The trooper who shot Johnson and a second motorcycle trooper who arrived afterward are not seen to render aid.

While the injured man writhed on one part of the screen, the bottom of the frame showed an ambulance and a fire department vehicle had arrived, but they remained at a distance as the minutes ticked by. Johnson was later transported to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Citing a statement from the Department of Public Safety, AZ Family reported, "It is standard procedure for medical crew to not approach the scene until cleared by law enforcement."

5. His family is demanding answers.

During a June 5 news conference, Johnson's mother, Erma Johnson, said on Facebook the grief for her son "hurts worse and worse." She claimed she had to beg Phoenix police for details on her son's condition before they told her the full story:

"I had to keep asking them," she said, "Where's he at, is he OK? Finally, they said, 'Officer involved shooting, he didn't make it.' "

During the news conference, she called on the FBI to take over the investigation from the Phoenix police, "because I'm not trusting everything going on right now." She'd earlier called the footage of her son on the ground "the most horrific thing I've seen as a mother."

"Why? Why? Why would you do this to my son? Why couldn’t you administer some kind of medical aid for him?" she said, addressing her remarks to the trooper. "He could’ve been alive to this day, but they held everybody up, so he could obviously lay down on the ground and die."

A Phoenix police spokeswoman told Patch in an email Friday that "there are no updates to provide," and referred questions about when the identity of the trooper who shot Johnson to the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

The agency responded to Patch's inquiry in an email: "The trooper’s name will be released when the investigation is complete."