A five-year-old Indiana boy, allegedly high on cocaine, shot and killed his 16-month-old brother, who was allegedly high on marijuana, in March of this year.
The Daily Mail reported that 27-year-old Deonta Jermaine Johnson was in the apartment asleep when the five-year-old allegedly shot 16-month-old Isiah Johnson in the head.
CBS News noted that Johnson is the father of the deceased 16-month-old, not the five-year-old.
Initially, Johnson allegedly denied having a gun and claimed the 16-month-old had fallen or was otherwise injured by his brother. As police searched the apartment, they found a gun locked in a safe and another “in the drawer of a dresser,” according to the Daily Mail. Officers also discovered “93 fentanyl pills, marijuana, and drug paraphernalia inside the apartment.”
Prosecutors have since charged Johnson and 24-year-old Shatia Tiara Welch “with neglect and various drug charges.” Johnson also faces obstruction of justice charges for allegedly taking marijuana out of the apartment and hiding it in his car before officers arrived on the scene.
Deonta Jermaine Johnson, 27, and Shatia Tiara Welch, 24 (LaPorte Police Department)
On April 15, 2023, the day of Isiah’s funeral, Welch posted on Facebook, “Today has been the hardest day of my life. HOW Tf do I say goodbye to my son my one-year-old baby? S*** so crazy I lost my best friend March 28th my life will NEVER be the same.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at