MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Lazarus Dewayne Johnson’s family and friends are still grieving, more than a year after his death in southwest Memphis.
His friend Beth doesn’t want her face shown because she’s still worried about her safety.
“I’m heartbroken, I feel empty, I don’t have any answers, it was just so sudden, there’s just a part of me that feels like it’s missing,” she said.
It was on Father’s Day 2020 when Memphis police say Johnson crashed his car into an abandoned house in the 3500 block of West Horn Lake Road near Brantly Road.
Neighbors say the impact from the crash was so loud, they thought it was an explosion. By the time Memphis police arrived, Johnson was dead.
He didn’t die because of the crash, but from a gunshot wound.
“Wayne has four kids. Three of those children had to bury their father before they could step a foot in high school,” Beth said. “They have to go to a grave and talk to their father through six feet of dirt, a concert barrier and a casket.”
Johnson’s children are now left to pick up the pieces.
“I wished that they would have took two seconds to think about the fact, that when they pulled that trigger that he was gone, but the rest of us are still here hurting and that his kids are having to go through life without him,” Beth said.
If you know who murdered 41-year-old Lazarus Dewayne Johnson, you are urged to call Crime Stoppers at (901) 528-CASH.
