The Tribune

Video footage played to inquest also shows gunfight with police

By PAVEL BAILEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

pbailey@tribunemedia.net

SECURITY footage showed 17-year-old Elron Johnson say, “don’t shoot, I give up” during a gun battle in which a police officer shot and killed him after his failed attempt to rob a Chinese restaurant last year.

An off-duty officer shot and killed Johnson as he fled the Double Dragon Chinese Restaurant on East Bay Street on June 15, 2023.

As the inquest into the fatal shooting continued yesterday, Sergeant Nikita Pickstock testified that he recovered security footage from the restaurant and a nearby apartment complex.

The first footage was from a camera behind the cash register. It showed the deceased entering the restaurant with a gun before cursing and demanding that patrons give him their belongings.

The footage showed Johnson and his accomplice, stationed at the door, running out of the restaurant out of fear of police arrival. An officer chased the men shortly before multiple shots were fired offscreen.

Sgt Pickstock said the off-duty officer was seated at a bar in the corner during the robbery, and Johnson had a gun in his right hand.

The second footage was from the vantage point of the dining area and showed restaurant patrons cowering in their seats as Johnson demanded their belongings. This footage also showed the officer chasing the robbers.

The restaurant’s occupants scurried for cover as gunfire rang out in the background.

Security footage from the restaurant’s parking lot showed Johnson climbing a wall in front of a nearby apartment complex as a gun battle ensued between him and the officer. The footage glitched in court.

The apartment complex’s black and white security footage showed the accomplice run away from the scene. Johnson is shown falling to the ground after jumping the wall upon being shot.

Johnson is shown crawling and dragging himself on the ground towards an empty building in the apartment complex yard and yells for his partner to help him.

He then stopped and sought cover behind a pile of sand, but returned fire while on the ground.

He then said: “Ok, sir, I give up, I give up.”

He howled in anguish after another shot rang out. He tried to crawl again before firing his weapon

into the air while lying on his back.

He said: “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot, please. I give up.”

The footage does not show him firing his weapon again. He is shown lying face-up as officers arrive on the scene with flashlights.

The footage showed an officer kicking the gun from near his hand and ordering him to stay down.

Colour security footage from a different angle showed a resident exiting their upstairs apartment to view the incident, only to run back inside as Johnson crawled and fired his weapon.

This footage ended with the deceased lying on the ground near the sand pile.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Tiffany Crawley-Hamilton testified that she helped investigate Johnson’s death.

She said the day after the shooting, she spoke to Inspector Lavaro Moxey, the subject of the inquest.

She said Inspector Moxey told her he pursued Johnson and his accomplice and engaged the former in a gunfight as he tried to climb the wall. He reportedly told her he shot Johnson in the leg and engaged the teen again when he fell over the wall.

ASP Hamilton said when she surveyed the scene of the shooting, she observed gunshot damage and apparent blood stains.

After viewing security footage of the incident, she said the footage was consistent with Inspector Moxey’s account.

On June 20, 2023, ASP Hamilton indicated that she inquired about the second suspect in the armed robbery and discovered that he had been found and charged with the robbery.

She said she was satisfied that the killing was justified.

K Melvin Munroe represents Inspector Moxey.

Angelo Whitfield marshalled the evidence.