Kendrick Johnson died under mysterious circumstances in a Georgia high school gym. His case will be examined by the federal prosecutors., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Feds open probe into death of Georgia teen
Kendrick Johnson found in rolled-up gym mat
The announcement comes after new video was released showing Johnson, 17, prior to his death. He is seen walking in the hall and later crossing the gym at Lowndes High School on Jan. 10. The next day he was found inside a wrestling mat, although local investigators say his death was accidental.
BY ERIK ORTIZ / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
PUBLISHED: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2013, 11:00 AM
Kendrick Lamar’s final day was caught partially on school surveillance.
A federal prosecutor says he'll launch an investigation into the bizarre death of Georgia teen Kendrick Johnson, who was found rolled up in a wrestling mat in his high school gym.
Despite local authorities who concluded the 17-year-old's death in January was accidental, his family has held onto the possibility that foul play was involved — and pushed for the Department of Justice to probe the case.
"My goal is to follow the facts, apply the law and protect the independence and objectivity of the investigative process," Michael Moore, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, said at a news conference Thursday.
If a criminal investigation is warranted, the FBI would conduct it, Moore added.
His announcement comes just as newly released surveillance footage shows Johnson on his last day alive at Lowndes High School. While the clips don’t reveal exactly what happened to the popular student athlete, his parents believe there could be another clue to unraveling his death.
“This is not a home run, but it gets us on first base,” Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the Johnson family, told NBC affiliate WXIA-TV this week.
Officially, Kendrick Johnson suffocated after accidenally rolling himself up in a wrestling mat at his south Georgia high school in January.
Officially, Kendrick Johnson suffocated after accidenally rolling himself up in a wrestling mat at his south Georgia high school in January.
Just before Thursday's announcement, the family said they had been seeking federal authorities to take the lead.
"I’m certainly hoping they will," another family attorney, Chevene King, told the Daily News.
The teen’s parents fought to gain access to the footage, though officials said they saw no evidence of something sinister in the clips.
One shows Johnson in a white T-shirt casually walking down the hall with a yellow folder or book in his hand. The video was taken at 12:59 p.m. Jan. 10.
Ten minutes later, he was captured walking into the gym. The video cuts to other students playing basketball. It’s unclear how much time elapsed.
Kendrick Johnson is seen crossing the gym around 1:09 p.m. Jan. 10. He was found dead the next morning.
There was a gym class and basketball practice scheduled that evening, but the boy’s body wasn’t found until the next morning when students spotted his feet.
The Johnsons hope that by seeing it, the footage will help trigger a name, a face integral in fleshing out the case.
“It’s just something we have to do. And so we’re fighting for Kendrick ‘til the end,” dad Kenneth Johnson told WXIA about watching the clips.
The Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office has said Johnson appeared to have become stuck inside the rolled-up mat while trying to fish out a shoe that fell inside the center.
A medical examiner determined the sporty teen died from positional asphyxia, which cut off his oxygen.
The body was found stuck upside down, and the mat was propped upright behind bleachers.
Kendrick Johnson was found inside a rolled up wrestling mat at his south Georgia high school, but a private pathologist found evidence of blunt force trauma.
Kendrick Johnson was found inside a rolled up wrestling mat at his south Georgia high school, but a private pathologist found evidence of blunt force trauma.
With so many questions still unanswered, Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson hired a private pathologist to look into his death.
The parents won a court order in June to have his body exhumed, and an autopsy found that his body, skull and other organs were missing — and replaced with balls of crumpled newspaper, CNN reported.
That added another layer to the mystery.
“I’m not sure at this point who did not return the organs to the body,” pathologist Dr. Bill Anderson said at the time. “But I know when we got the body, the organs were not there.”
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Johnson’s organs were taken out during the autopsy but put back before the body was sent to the funeral home.
Kenneth Johnson and his wife speak with a CNN reporter about the death of Kendrick Johnson. Police have called the 17-year-old's death an accident but the family is searching for more answers.
Harrington Funeral Home in Valdosta sent a letter to the Johnson family saying the organs “were destroyed through natural process” because of the manner in which he died, and then “discarded by the prosecutor,” CNN said.
The family said the discovery of newspapers inside Johnson's body was a slap in the face.
In addition, the pathologist found that his body suffered “blunt force trauma” and the fatal blow appeared “non-accidental.”
Despite the mounting evidence, the sheriff’s office has kept the case closed.
The Johnsons' attorney says there's still some 1900 hours of tape that the family is awaiting to receive in the next two to three days, and they're hoping it will benefit them.
"The idea that (the sheriff) would theorize something that he couldn't see in the video ... is difficult to understand," King told The News.
Moore said his office has seen the investigative reports, including the autopsies. There are several questions that will need to be answered, he added, including how exactly Johnson died and whether a crime was committed.
But he warned that even if Johnson was murdered, "it may not be a crime which could be prosecuted in federal court."
eortiz@nydailynews.com
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/new-video-shows-ga-teen-prior-found-rolled-up-mat-article-1.1502537#ixzz2jLTcHOOs
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