Witness Describes Chaos at Non-Fatal Shooting, I Screamed ‘Jesus’ Three Times. I Couldn’t Move.

By Justine Stuber [former] - December 9, 2023
Court | Daily Stories | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

On Nov. 21,  witnesses to a non-fatal shooting incident that occurred outside a church after a funeral testified in the trial of defendant Saphire Johnson. 

Johnson, 24, is charged with aggravated assault while armed and assault with a dangerous weapon, among other charges, for her alleged involvement in a non-fatal shooting that occurred on Sept. 28 at the 4000 block of Alabama Avenue, SE. 

The shooting occurred outside of Johnson’s grandmother’s church funeral after a dispute between family members. Two people, including Johnson, sustained non-life-threatening injuries during the incident. 

The incident was caught on surveillance footage. 

The prosecution began by calling a minister who had been on traffic duty at the time. According to the witness, he did not see what precipitated the incident, but stated he saw Johnson jump a nearby fence before ducking behind a car. Johnson, said the witness, then got out from behind the car holding a gun and fired shots. According to prosecutors and defense attorneys, Johnson was then shot by her cousin.

The minister testified that he did not see if the man Johnson was firing at was armed with a gun, that she claimed he had. He also didn’t hear either party make threats towards the other. 

In cross-examination the witness said that after Johnson fired shots, he heard the man she had been in a dispute with yelling “You shot my girl”. He also said that he had been afraid of the man before the shots were fired, stating that he seemed angry. 

The prosecution then called the mother of the child that had been involved in the incident triggering the dispute. According to Johnson’s defense attorneys Varsha Govindaraju and Christen Phillips, the argument occurred after Johnson heard her relative threatening to “slap the sh**” out of his fifteen-year-old daughter. 

The witness testified that the relative who had been in the argument with Johnson had been intimidating her before Johnson was involved. Johnson then inserted herself into the situation, allegedly saying “We’re not going to sit here and let you put your hands on her”. 

The witness said he was about to hit his daughter. According to the defense, she had testified in the grand jury that she was afraid he would hit her as well, but, during the trial, she changed her statement and said that she had not been afraid. 

Prosecutors called a police officer who interviewed Johnson while she was in the hospital. He said that she was not originally treated as a suspect and could not say who shot her. She also complained she was not being given proper pain medication. 

Then, the prosecution called a crime scene analyst who testified he processed multiple bloody handprints, shell casings, and a broken window at the scene. 

During the defense’s cross-examination, it was revealed no ballistics testing had been done nor swabs for DNA evidence or fingerprints.

The next witness was the aunt of the man with whom Johnson was arguing.

According to the witness, the daughter was the focus of the man’s anger and he began yelling in her face after Johnson appeared. The witness did not remember having seen a gun or any indications that the man was carrying one. She testified that Johnson pulled a gun shortly after the man began yelling.

“I saw the defendant with her feet planted, with a gun, and it was pointed directly at me. I screamed ‘Jesus’ three times. I couldn’t move. I was directly in the line of fire and I couldn’t move. I will never forget that,” she said. 

When the defense asked if she would lie on the stand for her nephew, she insisted that she would not lie for anyone. 

According to the defense, the aunt’s version of the story is inaccurate and she was not in the line of fire. Surveillance video does not show Johnson pointing a gun at her, and defense claims Johnson and the witness’ nephew broke away from the group before any shots were fired, as was captured on surveillance footage. 

“That’s just not accurate,” defense attorney Govindaraju said about her version of the story. 

The trial is set to resume Nov. 27.