GA - Kendrick Johnson, 17, Suspicious Death, Jan. 10/11, 2013, #1

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I don't know the position of the mats, except to say his mat was vertical.

This happened between classes - it seems to me it is likely he was the only one in the gym at that time. Kids wouldn't be leaving the gym - they'd be leaving and entering the dressing room it seems. Also, it might be unlikely that someone walking through the gym on the way to a class would notice a classmate over in the corner trying to fish out a shoe.

But they WOULD notice someone pranking a student by rolling them in a mat and struggling to get a heavy mat and a man size student upright. Hm. That would take several people and be very loud.

The family seems only focused - in m opinion - on their belief he was beaten which really doesn't seem to be the case IMHO.

I agree, there is a better chance of there being witnesses to a prank or, as the family contends, a beating. Whereas if he was just fishing his shoe out of the mat, there is more chance it would go unnoticed.

IMO, the family's insistence that there was foul play involved probably stems from the horrific state of KJ's body. It should have been explained to them before they viewed him for identification. The cops strongly cautioned me against viewing my father's body and advised me to remember him as he was because he looked like he had been beaten due to length of time he had lain on his side. I actually took their advice. My mother, unfortunately, did not. It seems to me that KJ's father, who viewed his body, is the one driving the claim that he was beaten. My heart goes out to him because I fully understand how he would have trouble reconciling the state of his handsome son's corpse. KJ was an attractive young man, and his personality really shows through in his photos. He was probably very popular, so I'm wondering who they think would have such a grudge against him to kill him.
 
I think the $64,000.00 question in this case is "did they find a shoe at the bottom of the mat??? If so, was it his shoe? Was he wearing another pair of shoes? Was it one of his wrestling shoes? Was it his gym shoe? How the heck did a shoe get down in there to begin with? Where does this story of the shoe come from??

BTW-my kids wrestle and mats are an important part of their duty as wrestlers. They are responsible for taking out and laying out the mats and then rolling them up and putting them away after practice. It isn't just a necessity, but rather part of the discipline. These mats are very expensive and need to be well cared for. Typically, the coaches would not allow for sloppy storage of the mats.

The photos of the boy look bad. Horrible even. And I can understand the family's concern, but they need to trust the coronor and perhaps get a 2nd opinion of the autopsy, but it seems to me that the injuries could be a result of a desperate struggle to get free and then inversion of the body for such a long period of time. It saddens me that this young boy died in such a frightening and horrific way.

It does sound like an accident to me. However, any time a student dies on campus for whatever reason, a thorough investigation needs to take place. The school is liable for students' safety, etc...

One last question-what was the last class of the day he attended? Did he miss classes that day? If so, why weren't parents notified that their son was absent from school, particularly if he was there for part of the day and gone the rest of the day. Did he have practice after school that he failed to attend?

Oh sorry...one more, hopefully someone knows. Did they find his body in a search, or did one of the wrestlers roll out the mat for practice and discovered his body?
 
Here's a new article, still very little information. There will be another rally on Saturday, with Al Sharpton. Maybe then someone will ask the obvious questions.


http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout...ation-mysterious-death-student-221222981.html

I had a thought. If the cheerleading mats were all rolled up, and his shoe was resting on top of one of them and he was crawling on all fours across the top of the mats, I could see a possibility of one of them coming off-kilter ad him falling head first into the gap.
 
A couple of quotes from previous articles that may answer some questions and pose others.

I've wondered why he was skipping class and went to the 'old' gym alone...was he meeting someone?

And, why was he not reported as skipping class to the parents since he had been at previous classes?

Why won't authorities let the parents see the video? Are other people shown in it?

Anastasia Roe, the teen's aunt, told FoxNews.com her nephew was a good student. But she said last year he got into an altercation with a fellow student and was suspended this season for playing football. The Lowndes County School Board was unable to confirm Johnson's suspension.

Jones, from the sheriff's office, said he is aware of an altercation and his office has been following potential leads.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/01/1...chool-student-found-wrapped-in/#ixzz2TPYr0t2l

17-year-old Kendrick Johnson's father Kenneth says the family reported their son missing to Lowndes County authorities late Thursday night. Tonight, Sheriff Chris Prine says investigators believe Johnson skipped his 4th block class and went inside the old gym alone. Prine says it appears Johnson was sitting on top of a row of rolled-up cheerleading mats when he lost a shoe or an article of clothing. When he bent down to retrieve it, he couldn't get back out. Johnson's parents don't believe that.

http://www.walb.com/story/20585017/officials-call-lowndes-student-death-accidential
 
Long article with details. I'm inclined to believe it's true.

http://valdostadailytimes.com/local/x6223544/Timeline-of-a-tragedy


Thanks for finding such a detailed article. i was looking at the other articles and the facebook page trying to get a detailed account.

It is sad that a young man died and he has loved ones who mourn him (and I truly feel bad for them), and it is hard for loved ones to understand why this happened and they want to make sense of it.

But I just don't see a case for murder or foul play or a coverup. What i do see is a lot of untrue allegations (i.e. he was wearing a plastic bag on his head) and accusations and ugly comments playing the race card and I hate that. I would not even dare to leave condolences as a comment on the facebook page because there is so much ugliness there, i.e. comparing this child's death to Emmit Till's when it is just not comparable. Maybe they think linking his death to Emmit Till's will help their cause by stirring up and inciting people to action.

But sadly, that tactic doesn't help. It may get attention or stir up people but takes the focus off of the real tragedy and scare off people who do care but do not want to get into what has devolved into fight over race. It invites trolls and haters and people who love to fight and who use the victim as a reason to justify their own issues or causes.

Now there were black commenters who admonished the others for turning it into an issue of race but they were swiftly jumped on and attacked. Really it was just a sad mess.

I hate when people complain that justice wasn't served and that if it had been a white victim that justice would have been served. We at WS know better than that. We see too many victims of all colors, races, ages, etc to know that injustice happens everywhere and that victims come in all colors, as do perpetrators. No one is immune.

You just don't know how sad all of this makes me feel. Seriously and from the heart, Swampmama.
 
Thanks for finding such a detailed article. i was looking at the other articles and the facebook page trying to get a detailed account.

It is sad that a young man died and he has loved ones who mourn him (and I truly feel bad for them), and it is hard for loved ones to understand why this happened and they want to make sense of it.

But I just don't see a case for murder or foul play or a coverup. What i do see is a lot of untrue allegations (i.e. he was wearing a plastic bag on his head) and accusations and ugly comments playing the race card and I hate that. I would not even dare to leave condolences as a comment on the facebook page because there is so much ugliness there, i.e. comparing this child's death to Emmit Till's when it is just not comparable. Maybe they think linking his death to Emmit Till's will help their cause by stirring up and inciting people to action.

But sadly, that tactic doesn't help. It may get attention or stir up people but takes the focus off of the real tragedy and scare off people who do care but do not want to get into what has devolved into fight over race. It invites trolls and haters and people who love to fight and who use the victim as a reason to justify their own issues or causes.

Now there were black commenters who admonished the others for turning it into an issue of race but they were swiftly jumped on and attacked. Really it was just a sad mess.

I hate when people complain that justice wasn't served and that if it had been a white victim that justice would have been served. We at WS know better than that. We see too many victims of all colors, races, ages, etc to know that injustice happens everywhere and that victims come in all colors, as do perpetrators. No one is immune.

You just don't know how sad all of this makes me feel. Seriously and from the heart, Swampmama.

I can see how you feel that way, but Kendrick's parents have lived long enough in that state to have seen some horrific things. Just this spring, for example, there was a public high school prom for whites and blacks. Then, a group of students held a mixed prom but the white prom still happened too.

When you see that kind of thing in the public school system, it would be easy to think they'd actually murder a Black student and not prosecute it.

On the other hand, I'm becoming more convinced this is what it is, although I'm still having trouble picturing a mat rolled loosely enough where his entire body could get in there, and yet it was rolled tightly enough to stand upright with the support of the other mats. Had so many kids walked across that mat area that it worked its way open?
 
Thanks for finding such a detailed article. i was looking at the other articles and the facebook page trying to get a detailed account.

It is sad that a young man died and he has loved ones who mourn him (and I truly feel bad for them), and it is hard for loved ones to understand why this happened and they want to make sense of it.

But I just don't see a case for murder or foul play or a coverup. What i do see is a lot of untrue allegations (i.e. he was wearing a plastic bag on his head) and accusations and ugly comments playing the race card and I hate that. I would not even dare to leave condolences as a comment on the facebook page because there is so much ugliness there, i.e. comparing this child's death to Emmit Till's when it is just not comparable. Maybe they think linking his death to Emmit Till's will help their cause by stirring up and inciting people to action.

But sadly, that tactic doesn't help. It may get attention or stir up people but takes the focus off of the real tragedy and scare off people who do care but do not want to get into what has devolved into fight over race. It invites trolls and haters and people who love to fight and who use the victim as a reason to justify their own issues or causes.

Now there were black commenters who admonished the others for turning it into an issue of race but they were swiftly jumped on and attacked. Really it was just a sad mess.

I hate when people complain that justice wasn't served and that if it had been a white victim that justice would have been served. We at WS know better than that. We see too many victims of all colors, races, ages, etc to know that injustice happens everywhere and that victims come in all colors, as do perpetrators. No one is immune.

You just don't know how sad all of this makes me feel. Seriously and from the heart, Swampmama.

ITA. Bringing race into this case was completely inappropriate. And the Emmett Till photo comparison was just way over the top, especially considering that the coroner had already given his findings that KJ died due to suffocation (not beating). Now that the evidence has been released, it's clear that LE conducted a thorough investigation.
 
I can see how you feel that way, but Kendrick's parents have lived long enough in that state to have seen some horrific things. Just this spring, for example, there was a public high school prom for whites and blacks. Then, a group of students held a mixed prom but the white prom still happened too.

When you see that kind of thing in the public school system, it would be easy to think they'd actually murder a Black student and not prosecute it.

On the other hand, I'm becoming more convinced this is what it is, although I'm still having trouble picturing a mat rolled loosely enough where his entire body could get in there, and yet it was rolled tightly enough to stand upright with the support of the other mats. Had so many kids walked across that mat area that it worked its way open?

"That kind of thing" doesn't happen in the public school system. The high school you are referring to does not hold a prom (and I'm pretty sure it's not the high school KJ attended anyway). Private parties in the community hold private proms. JMO, OMO, MOO, etc.
 
I'm pretty sure it's not the high school KJ attends either - but it is the same area of the country.

I don't think any proms are actually hosted by high schools anymore - I know ours isn't. It's technically a private party, run by moms. But it's the school prom, with money raised during school activities and advertised through school communication venues, and tickets are sold at lunch on campus. Proms aren't held in the school gym anymore, but the whites only prom in these schools were in fact, the school prom. Although it's a private party ONLY students in the junior and senior class at our high school and their dates are allowed to purchase tickets.

For the two schools I heard this year that hosted their first-ever mixed prom, it's the school prom they're talking about - not something completely distanced from the school although technically not funded by the school.

I spent some time in Biloxi a couple summers ago (different State, I know, same area of the country though) and I couldn't believe the overt racism I saw. Overt. Like a snow cone shop openly refusing to sell snow cones to black children.
 
I'm pretty sure it's not the high school KJ attends either - but it is the same area of the country.

I don't think any proms are actually hosted by high schools anymore - I know ours isn't. It's technically a private party, run by moms. But it's the school prom, with money raised during school activities and advertised through school communication venues, and tickets are sold at lunch on campus. Proms aren't held in the school gym anymore, but the whites only prom in these schools were in fact, the school prom. Although it's a private party ONLY students in the junior and senior class at our high school and their dates are allowed to purchase tickets.

For the two schools I heard this year that hosted their first-ever mixed prom, it's the school prom they're talking about - not something completely distanced from the school although technically not funded by the school.

I spent some time in Biloxi a couple summers ago (different State, I know, same area of the country though) and I couldn't believe the overt racism I saw. Overt. Like a snow cone shop openly refusing to sell snow cones to black children.

BBM:

I live in this general area. Our prom is still held at the high school- hosted by the high school and the Junior Class in the gym- and is for Juniors & Seniors and their dates. I have been to Lowndes for numerous athletic events over the past 20 years; and it is races are almost equal in terms of population- 50/50.

That school is not in Lowndes County you are referring to, it is in tiny Houston County- and neither the white nor black prom is a school event. The mixed prom this year was. Of course there was fundraising- same as for all proms I or my kids have ever attended.

Comparing Biloxi to this part of GA , or GA as a whole, is comparing apples to cucumbers. There is much less racism here than what I have witnessed in Washington DC.

BTW: Atlanta is run by people of color. There are plenty of idiots in this country- the South does not have exclusive rights to have them as residents.
 
Press conference from yesterday. held in Atlanta.

http://www.examiner.com/article/nex...son-case-begins-with-atlanta-press-conference

Article about what a coroner's inquest is - I think this would be REALLY helpful, and is open to the public:

http://www.co.adams.il.us/coroner/inquest.htm

"The mysterious death of Kendrick Johnson ruled an accident due to positional asphyxia by the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office and endorsed by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation via released lab report findings on May 2 has been rejected by the family of the Lowndes County High School student from the very beginning."


BBM: GBI does not endorse any findings lightly. Their employees are some of the best in the country. This is absolutely ridiculous and a waste of money, imo. I believe they will never accept the truth, no matter what is done, and who endorses it.
 
News from today. Apparently a paramedic's notes indicate that Kendrick's head and arms were outside the mat, and his feet and lower body was wrapped up inside the mat.

Honestly, this is getting to be like one of those bad daytime soap operas where people have these conversations without all the people present and none of it gets communicated correctly because people walk in and walk out of the room during the time they could have added to the understanding. PLEASE. Can these people just get together, all in one place, and go over what happened together?

According to the coach and several students, his feet were seen sticking up, he was upside down inside the mat, and they unrolled him as quickly as they could to try to help. The paramedics certainly wouldn't have been on the scene before that happened - so why is the paramedics observation useful?

http://www.walb.com/story/22409691/kendrick-johnson-family-says-new-report-raises-questions
 
News from today. Apparently a paramedic's notes indicate that Kendrick's head and arms were outside the mat, and his feet and lower body was wrapped up inside the mat.

Honestly, this is getting to be like one of those bad daytime soap operas where people have these conversations without all the people present and none of it gets communicated correctly because people walk in and walk out of the room during the time they could have added to the understanding. PLEASE. Can these people just get together, all in one place, and go over what happened together?

According to the coach and several students, his feet were seen sticking up, he was upside down inside the mat, and they unrolled him as quickly as they could to try to help. The paramedics certainly wouldn't have been on the scene before that happened - so why is the paramedics observation useful?

http://www.walb.com/story/22409691/kendrick-johnson-family-says-new-report-raises-questions

If that was so, why didn't some of the kids playing ball the night before, according to the video, see him then? He should have been able to call out to get attention or wave his arms around at least.
 
If that was so, why didn't some of the kids playing ball the night before, according to the video, see him then? He should have been able to call out to get attention or wave his arms around at least.

I think if it happened as an accident, he was dead within a few minutes. Positional axphysia, and being held upside down, doesn't take that long. I would just think the kids didn't see his feet, but by then it was too late anyway.
 
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