LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Roderick Johnson, 21, was just two blocks from home when he was shot six times Tuesday.
"He wasn't a gang banger," said his mother, Joyce Johnson. "You could hear him walking the street singing 'This Little Light of Mine.' He wasn't like that."
Roderick Johnson was gunned down Tuesday afternoon near 38th and Jefferson Streets in the Shawnee neighborhood.
Joyce Johnson said she kept waiting for him to return from work, but he never did.
"I put on Facebook, 'Has anybody seen my son?'," she said. "And then someone sent a picture of him laying on the sidewalk."
The family rushed to University Hospital, but Roderick wasn't there.
"I had people calling Norton's, people calling Jewish Hospital, but no one had any kind of traumas," Joyce Johnson said. "So all I could do is go home, and sit, and wait."
She said her phone rang at 4:30 a.m.
"The detective called me and said it was Roderick," she said.
The 21-year-old was unresponsive with a brain injury. He died Wednesday night.
But the next morning, Joyce Johnson was back at work. She teaches at Minor Daniels Academy, a JCPS alternative school.
"They were surprised to see me," she said. "One little boy even came up, and he whispered in my ear -- one of the tough ones -- 'Did something bad happen to your son?' and he hugged me. And he said I'm sorry. That means so much."
The school enrolls students with behavior problems. Teachers try to keep them from going down the wrong path. Joyce Johnson calls her students her babies.
"I'm tired of seeing my babies ... I've buried too many of them," she said. "And then to have to bury my own, that's the icing on the cake."
That's why she's sharing this plea to her son's friends: Do not retaliate. Do something productive, instead.
"Putting on a T-shirt that says RIP means nothing. That's not honoring your friend," she said. "If you want to honor one of your friends that's been lost, go to college. Get a job. Move on with your life.
"Honor them by going to their momma's house and cutting their grass, checking on their momma and see if they need something. Be there for them."
LMPD hasn't made any arrests. Anyone with information should call 574-LMPD. You can remain anonymous.
Related Stories:
- Shooting victim found in Shawnee neighborhood has died
- LMPD investigating shooting at 38th and West Jefferson Streets
- As Louisville reaches 100 criminal homicides in 2017, more than half the cases remain unsolved
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