MIAMI — Fifteen years ago, Jermaine Johnson’s father was shot to death at a pay phone in Overtown. Years later, his stepfather was also shot to death outside a home in Miami Gardens — as Johnson, then just 12, watched in horror.
Johnson himself has now met a similar violent fate. This past weekend, rifle-wielding gunmen ambushed a Miami birthday party, peppering a rented home with bullets, killing the 19-year-old as he was inside a bedroom. The shooting, which also injured Johnson’s cousin, was yet another blow to a family that has long been devastated by gun violence.
“It’s so sad,” said his mother, Ashley Walden. “My baby went through so much.”
