MILWAUKEE – A 22-year-old Milwaukee woman is charged with first-degree manslaughter in connection with the death of a 14-year-old boy near the corner of 39th and Vliet. The defendant is Zariah Johnson.
According to the criminal complaint, Milwaukee police were dispatched to the area near 39th and Vliet on Thursday, August 15. Citizens had gathered and administered two doses of Narcan to the victim, thinking it was an overdose. However, when medical personnel arrived at the scene, it was discovered that the victim had been shot in the back. Five .380 caliber shell casings were found in the area.
A witness to the incident told police the victim, later identified by the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office as Alijah Golden-Richmond, “was trying to steal a car and as they were walking past the (Golden-Richmond) 37th Street School, they saw the blue and green Hyundai. (Golden-Richmond) smashed the window of the car and they heard a female voice from inside saying ‘mmhmmm!’ And they all ran north on N. 37th St.,” the complaint states. As the group was walking, the same vehicle headed east into an alley, so “the group hid on the porch of a house and the car stopped,” the complaint states. The complaint goes on to say that “the female fired a shot in the air and they all started running. The woman then ‘started firing in their direction and landed in the dirt at his feet.'” The witness told police that none of the people in their group were armed.
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Police interrogation
Detectives interviewed defendant Johnson on Friday, August 16. She initially said a man was the shooter. But after Johnson was informed that “a witness said the shooter was a woman and that her own mother had said she was the shooter, Zariah Johnson began to cry and said she had not intended to kill anyone, but just wanted to ‘scare’ them. Zariah Johnson admitted she was the shooter,” the indictment states.
Deadly shooting at the corner of 39th and Vliet, Milwaukee
Johnson then told police more about what happened that Thursday. She said she was home when she learned her sister’s car had been broken into. Johnson said she saw four people near the vehicle and “armed herself with her mother’s black handgun. When she went outside, the perpetrators noticed her and ran away,” the complaint states.
The lawsuit says Johnson entered the vehicle with a gun and “drove around looking for the people who had broken into the car.” When she found the group of four, “she circled the block, returned to them and yelled something to get their attention, at which point two of them started running,” the lawsuit says. Johnson “then began firing at the running individuals and she fired approximately four times until her gun jammed. She did not observe that she actually hit anyone and the individuals continued running,” the lawsuit says. Johnson said she then drove home and parked the car behind her house.
Deadly shooting at the corner of 39th and Vliet, Milwaukee
Weapon disposed of in garbage can
According to the criminal complaint, Johnson said she found a Facebook livestream at home with the person who shot her. “The person recording said the person had overdosed, but then it turned out he had been shot in the back and was dead. She then realized that this was in the area where she had been shot and that she was likely the person who had killed him,” the complaint states. Johnson then told police she “told her mother and left the area with a gun and said she disposed of the gun in a trash can in the area of N. 23rd and Keefe. Officers searched that area and did not find a firearm,” the complaint states.
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Johnson made his initial appearance in Milwaukee County Court on Wednesday, August 21. Bail was set at $150,000.
