LOUISVILLE, Ky. — On May 21, 2019, 27-year-old Corey Johnson was at home with his son and mother when someone found their way into his apartment and shot and killed him.
His apartment sits on 18th St. and Main St and Monique Johnson, Corey's sister, still has vivid memories of the day it happened. She received a phone call from their mother that still haunts her.
"She said get here now, I said okay, what's wrong, then I heard her scream his name," said Johnson. "It's the worst kind of panic ever. Your heart is just beating non-stop."
Monique rushed to her brother's home where she was met with police lights and crime tape, the clearest sign that tragedy had hit this family.
"He didn't make it to the hospital. I had to watch my brother carried out in a body bag. He didn't make it out. No, he didn't make it out alive," Johnson said.
Johnson's mother was in the house that night and Monique tried to gather if she had seen what had happened but being sick, she was in the other room. What's worse, is that Johnson's five-year-old son was in the room with his father and witnessed what happened, Monique went to him instead.
"What happened to Corey that night? All he could tell me was 'the man shot him.' I don't know who that man is. He said, 'the man shot him, and now he's in Heaven,'" Johnson said.
This is still an open investigation so police are not confirming many details
But she was told there was no forcible entry. It's likely he knew the person that killed him after all, he let him inside. Whoever it is shot him and took off.
"When he came out the door he went to the right and there was an alley, and he hit that alley and that's the last they had," Johnson said.
Johnson doesn't know why anyone would want to hurt her brother
"I've not known him to have any enemies," Johnson said.
Monique holds onto hope that Corey Jr.'s memories of his father will be pure.
And that the person who took that innocence away, will be prosecuted.
"I just want justice for him. I want the person that did this to be put away. I want to start to heal but I can't, because I know the person that did this is out there," Johnson said.
If you have a tip about what happened to Corey that night, call Crime Stoppers' 24/7 phone line at 582-CLUE
Contact reporter Heather Fountaine at hfountaine@whas11.com and follow her on Twitter (@WHAS11Heather) and Facebook.
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