‘He was loving and playful:’ Mother mourns son who was gunned down steps from family home

FAIRBURN, Ga. — A mother says she wants justice after a gunman shot and killed her 18-year-old son just steps from their home.

Carolyn Johnson says the bullets almost hit two of her daughters and grandchildren.

Johnson says this is senseless and she shouldn’t be grieving over the loss of her son.

“He was loving and playful and everybody, everybody loved Devontae,” she told Channel 2′s Tom Jones.

Johnson says everybody loved Devontae Johnson, except the gunman who shot him near their home on Parkway Drive in Fairburn Wednesday evening around 5. “I was in the house and next thing I know I just heard shots,” she explained.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Those shots not only killed Devontae but came dangerously close to hitting his sister.

“One of the bullets had grazed me as I was trying to go towards to my son to get him out of the car,” Shema Johnson said, showing the bruise on her arm.

Shema says she watched her brother die as a hail of bullets burst out a neighbor’s car window, flattened her sister’s tire, and one bullet hit a neighbor’s home. She says her child and her sister were caught in the gunfire.

Shema says the gunman was on foot and had a military-style weapon. “It was definitely an automatic weapon.”

Fairburn police say they are investigating.

Devontae’s mother says she had just talked to her son. “I had talked to him on the phone and he was like Mom I love you. And I was like I love you too baby,” she said.

Soon after he was dead.

TRENDING STORIES:

• ‘Suspicious’ father, son middle school employees arrested for having knives on metro Atlanta campus
• Football legend, GA native says he’s ‘embarrassed’ after sex act heard over Instagram Live
• Apalachee school shooting: Colt Gray snuck gun into school in his backpack, sheriff says

The mother is now strongly urging everyone to put the guns down and stop the senseless loss of life. Johnson had this message for her son’s killer.

“So if you watching this just know that we’re gonna get justice for Devontae.”

Fairburn police continue searching for the shooter. Officers say there is no risk to the community.

They’re asking anyone with any information to give them a call.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

IN OTHER NEWS:

More police than normal at all Atlanta schools Thursday morning after threats

©2024 Cox Media Group