The Sevier County Sheriff’s Office is refusing to answer questions about a deputy who video and court records show opened fire without warning in a mobile home park and later suffered a panic attack while armed.
Sheriff Ron “Hoss” Seals acknowledged in a Facebook post on the agency’s website Monday he purposely did not respond to a USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee query about Deputy Justin Johnson. He cited the newspaper’s story, published on its website Monday, as the cause for his Facebook post.
“We are not free to make public comment on any criminal case until it has been adjudicated,” Seals wrote in the post. “One of the most difficult tasks that I face as sheriff is remaining quiet while public scrutiny and speculation runs rampant.”
Johnson fired seven shots without warning in a mobile home park on Sharp Road in December 2016 and then ran away from two suspects, leaving two unarmed paramedics behind with them, footage from his body camera showed.
Johnson suffered a panic attack four minutes after he opened fire, the video and court testimony showed. A paramedic disarmed him but returned the gun to him while Johnson was still hyperventilating, the video showed. Brian Mullinax, 41, who was unarmed and on the ground when Johnson suffered the panic attack, is facing trial on an assault charge for causing it.
When Cody walked from the yard of the trailer and climbed through a fence into a field, Johnson drew his gun but instead of walking toward her or issuing commands, he ran around another mobile home, blocking his view of her, walked onto Sharp Road and then headed toward the field, the video showed.
Johnson, with help from a paramedic, was trying to handcuff Cody, who was on the ground, when Mullinax, her boyfriend, walked out of a trailer in front of Johnson and, according to testimony, began yelling that he was filming Johnson with his cell phone.
Johnson wrote in his report that he heard a sound behind him and then turned to see an armed suspect on the porch of a mobile home behind him. The video showed Mullinax was on a porch of a trailer facing Johnson.
Johnson issued no warning and fired over the paramedic’s head.
Johnson immediately ran away after firing the shots. When he returned to the location in the field where a paramedic still had Cody on the ground, he yelled at Mullinax, “You drop that (expletive) thing. Do it now.”
Johnson did not mention the panic attack in his report. He remains on active duty. Tennessee has asked to review his personnel file, any internal investigation related to the Sharp Road incident and any use of force reports typically required when a law enforcement officer discharges his weapon on duty. The agency was reviewing the request Monday.
A civilian, in midst of a mental health episode, with a firearm, even unloaded, would likely be shot by responding LEOs. They would assume that firearm, in possession, is loaded and will be used. Here we have an LEO ‘brother’ , who possessed a loaded firearm, and used it. Shooting in a direction of EMT 1st responder. Yet none of his brother and sister LEOs did their duty to stop the threat. Cowardice on display, with ‘blood thicker then water ‘ mixed in. What a disgrace! The only guts with balls in this incident were unarmed EMT!
Wtf are you talking about? He wasn’t shooting at the Unarmed EMTs and no one at the scene probably had an idea what or why he was shooting intially and it was a confusin situation. Telll me when clear criminal Intent was established. Really a dumb post, clearly a religion of hate from you.
The round went over the EMT’s head. The maniac cop was, at the least, shooting in EMT’s direction. The poor guy had a meltdown. A civilian having a mental illness , so armed, will most likely be put down by responding officers.
This cop, who lost his shit, was trained, certified, approved, tested, by his agency. They got it totally wrong. Up to a quarter of sworn peace officers in this nation, at municipal level and country level, are unfit for duty. Mainly they are unfit mentally, and physiologically. Every citizen LEO contact is a Russian roulette, which explains a severe pandemic of unnecessary UOF and overall violence perpetrated by LEO upon civilians. Not just general UOF, but level of misconduct. With bearing false witness, false report, and overall lack of honesty and integrity of LEOs nationwide.
Your entire belief system is false. Use of force is down. There is no pandemic, only a pandemic of illogical ill informed people thinking their opinions matter. Deadly force encounters are a tiny fraction of police contacts, and you are delusional to think arriving police officers would know exactly what was going on and immediately respond by shooting their fellow officer. You are nuts.
That police officers would not Shoot their own, even if presenting a threat to public, is not in question. That you would use lethal force on a civilian, if you are presented with a hint of a threat, or just perception, right or wrong , of one , is not in doubt. The many a civilian in mental distress , shot , beaten, tazed, or strangled to death , atests to that sad fact. It is exactly what makes today’s municipal LEO such a danger to our communites, and a persistent threat to our families, including children.
You are delusional. “many” civilians are not shot. There are millions of police contacts a year. Less than a fraction of a percent involve use of deadly force and nearly all of them are justified. Imagining an officer in this case shooting his co-worker under such circumstances shows that you are completely out of touch with reality and how use of force incidents occur. Do you even know the legal standard?
Lethal force is authorized to save one own’s life or life of others. In this case ‘others’ were in jeopardy, the EMT. But then, another legal precedent is that police have no duty to protect, only to enforce the law. Our police , in these United States of ours, are not what we think, not what we were taught, and not how the police see themselves. Today , probability of being killed or injured by unwarranted force, mistaken force level, or excessive force, by municipal law enforcement is higher then it was thirty years ago. While the probability that the offending officer, actually suffering legal penalties is lower. Being charged is not enough, I am talking about conviction , sentencing, and serving the sentence, by offending LEO.
In a sane world, cop that killed a law abiding motorist, for MERELY possesing a legal weapon, would be in prison. He is not, he walked. In a sane world cop that panicked and shot a lady, an unarmed civilian who called the police, would go to prison. He won’t, he will walk. In a sane world, a pedestrian (on foot,) walking on sidewalk, would not be stopped , harassed, beaten, tazed, and paralyzed becouse he did not have ID, and did not speak English to sufficient level. A motorist should not be shot, while complying with Tropper request for DL and insurance, becouse in tropper’s opinion, the motorist complied too fast. An innocent civilian female, t-boned by deputy , who ran a red light, should not be arrested for DUI, on false statement of deputy, and have DUI charges hanging for a year, where the department knew of deputies false statement from 2nd day.
Your profession, as it is practiced, is a threat to life, health, safety, and security of American citizens. You regularly lie during investigations, perjure yourself in court, and victimize civilians.
No justice. There is no justice to expect, when it comes LEO UOF.
Amadou Diallo received NO JUSTICE! NONE!
Abner Luima received, maybe the only case, of justice regarding police UOF.
Recommend you read “An Officer and an Attrocity.”
It was Diallo shooting, Luima rape violation, and murder of 11 year old Alberto Sepulveda by 20 year SWAT veteran. who was not persecuted, that began my disolution with American municipal law enforcement. Our cops are not heroes. THey are in fact, cowards of first order.
“probability of being killed or injured by unwarranted force, mistaken force level, or excessive force, by municipal law enforcement is higher then it was thirty years ago” this is false. Use of deadly force by police is rare as whole (2+ million contacts a year and only a few hundred deadly force shootings) and much more restrictive (Tennessee v. Garner) and is down as whole compared to decades ago. NYPD for example, has 10% of the shootings it used to have. Where is the data to back up a single one of your beliefs? There isn’t any. You made it all up. One case so rare that it shocked the nation is not proof of anything you said, it is in fact proof that it isn’t a wide spread problem.
I recommend you develop the intellectual ability to realize that bringing up a few extreme situations some decades old, which you can of course for any profession, does not equate to a major problem, especially to an increasing problem.
Oh Dmitry who HAS NEVER BEEN A COP is heard from yet again and it’s the typical drivel.