RIP BILLEY JOE JOHNSON

The NAACP will push forward with an independent investigation into the shooting death of Billey Joe Johnson Jr. that will take a "new direction to get to the truth," the vice president of the state chapter said Tuesday.
"While we wait for the state pathologist's report, we're going to determine why he died and let them determine how he died," Curley Clark said.
Meanwhile, Tony Lawrence, the Jackson County district attorney who is handling the state's investigation, said, "As a part of this effort, this office has sought all relevant information obtained by the NAACP or anyone else.
"This investigation has also included keeping the family advised of these efforts. This investiga tion will be professional, thorough and deliberate, rather than superficial and fast."
Johnson, 17, one of the state's most promising high school football players, died Dec. 8 of a gunshot to the head after a George County sheriff's deputy stopped him on a traffic violation in the Benndale community. Authorities have suggested that he shot himself, possibly by accident.
The NAACP is pressing ahead, Clark said, because of the swarm of rumors circulating in the community.
According to one report, a woman and daughter were on their way to file charges against Johnson for an attempted break-in at their Lucedale home on the same morning that he died.
"We are investigating if she or her family has a tie to law enforcement officers," Clark said, refusing to say how many investigators the NAACP is bringing into the case.
"It has been said that either she or her family has a personal relationship to someone in one of those offices, and we just want the truth."
According to incident reports released earlier, George County Deputy Joe Sullivan pulled over Johnson on Miss. 26 and was in his cruiser when the teen fell fatally wounded beside his pickup truck.
Other incident reports depict Johnson as being a person of interest in an alleged break-in that same morning at a mobile home on Lamar Street. Minutes after that call to police, Johnson died about two miles from the mobile home.
Johnson, a junior at George County High School, was a star running back who had already received a number of scholarship offers from major universities.
The district attorney said he would release information prior to a George County grand jury presentment, which he expected to be in February.
"I encourage anyone with information as to this incident to please contact Joel Wallace with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation or my office," he said. "I have said from the beginning that this investigation will be exhaustive and not based on any timeline other than that which leads to the truth."