CHICAGO — Brandon Johnson saw his attacker moments before the single shot that killed him was fired.
The longtime Back of the Yards resident had answered a knock at his door in the 5400 block of South Wolcott Avenue only to be met with a fatal gunshot wound in the face Wednesday, according to police.
Friends say Johnson, 30, locally known as "Mook," grew up in the neighborhood where he was killed. He was in the process of raising two young children at the time of his death.
"You've heard of single moms? Well, he was a single pops," said Cedrick Brown, Johnson's next door neighbor.
According to another friend and longtime neighbor, Taiwan Johnson, no one on the block would have suspected Brandon Johnson would have been killed so violently.
"He didn't have any enemies — that man could sit on any porch on this block," he said, with a laugh. "I couldn't even do that.
"I'm mad as hell he got shot because I know he was a good brotha."
Johnson lived alone with his two children, but friends say he was seen in front of the house with his girlfriend within a half hour before the shooting — a detail not noted in police reports.
Gang affiliation and a possible narcotics connection were noted in the report, however. Johnson's friends say the latter could be true, but they strongly deny the former.
"There are no gangs anymore," Brown said. "No one's in charge."
Johnson was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center via ambulance after the shooting, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. He was pronounced dead at 7:30 p.m.
