Delia Johnson: 42-Year-Old Mother Ambushed In Executiion-Style Murder On NY Street
Delia Johnson, 42, of New York City, was lured into an execution-style ambush on Wednesday, August 4, 2021, according to the New York Police Department.
Delia Johnson, 42, was a Brooklyn, New York mother raising a 17-year-old teen. "She wasn't perfect, but her heart was perfect," her brother told local media.
Johnson had attended the funeral of a friend on Wednesday, August 4, 2021, in Prospect Heights neighborhood.
Nothing out of the ordinary appears to have occurred at the funeral, according to witnesses.
But many who are familiar with the incident say that Johnson was “lured” into a deadly ambush by a “family friend,” who happened to attend the funeral as well.
A family member of Johnson told local media that Johnson received a call to come to a Crown Heights location later that night, which she did.
“She was on the block with us, she got a phone call, and when she got the phone call, she said, ‘I’ll be right back,’ ” longtime friend Shawn Johnson, 43, told the New York Post.
On a crowded street, Johnson had her guard down and was talking on the phone. That’s when a woman walked up behind her and shot her execution-style in the back of the head.
"I asked everybody if they had words, they were both there, but there was no interaction," Mathis Johnson, the victim's brother, told ABC 7.
Surveillance video of the brazen shooting shows what appears to be a calculated plot: A dark-skinned woman with blonde hair wearing black tights and a black long-sleeve shirt casually walking up to a group of people making small talk.
The woman quickly pulls a gun out from behind her back and shoots the unsuspecting woman, with her back turned, in the head at point-blank range.
When Johnson collapses to the ground, the gunwoman keeps shooting.
Johnson suffered gunshot wounds to the head and legs, police said.
A longer version of the video shows the moments before the slaying, when a man appears to hand the suspect something, which she conceals behind her back before the shooting.
Johnson was rushed to nearby Interfaith Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
"The woman was heartless, she took a sister a daughter away, she took a mother,” the victim’s brother told the TV station.
The NYPD continues to investigate the slaying, but so far have not made any arrests or identified the suspect.
But after viewing the video, the victim’s family has strong thoughts about the identity of the suspect.
“I know her!” Delia’s mother, Delia Barry, told the Post. “Oh my God, oh my God, she used to stay with us. She slept in my bed, ate my food.”
One of the victim’s younger sisters, Hadijah Pendley, called the suspect “a family friend who came to our family events, celebrations, holidays — whatever you want to call it, she came.”
“I just want to know why. What could she have done to you that you couldn’t come and knock on my door and tell me? I would have straightened it out for both of you all,” the mother was quoted as saying.
Anyone with information in regard to the whereabouts of this individual is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS(8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782)
