“We’re just shocked; there’s devastation on every side,” says the mother of the Lexington man who has been charged in Texas for allegedly killing a police officer during a traffic stop.
“He’s just a good-hearted child,” Mary Johnson said Tuesday afternoon about her son, Darrian Cortez Johnson.
The 25-year-old has been charged with one count of capital murder of a peace officer or fireman and was being held Tuesday at the Kaufman County Jail in Kaufman, Texas, without bail.
According to news reports out of Texas, Jacob Candanoza, an officer with the Terrell Police Department, initiated a traffic stop of a vehicle with expired Mississippi license plates around 11 p.m. Sunday. Candanoza and the flagged driver pulled into a motel parking lot in Terrell, a city 32 miles east of Dallas.
Candanoza provided a license plate number to dispatchers, and then, according to information provided to Dallas-Fort Worth KDFW-TV by the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office, there was a struggle between Candanoza and the driver. Dispatchers then received word that Candanoza had been shot.
Candanoza was reportedly shot multiple times, including in the head and the chest.
He was transported to Baylor Scott and White Family Medical Center in Forney, Texas, where he died.
The suspect’s vehicle was pursued to Van Zandt County, 30 miles east of Terrell. According to NBC-DFW, a Dallas-Fort Worth news station, the arrest warrant affidavit said the vehicle was disabled, and the suspect eventually fled on foot into a heavily wooded area.
After a seven-hour manhunt, the suspect, identified by law enforcement as Johnson, was arrested around 5:30 a.m. Monday.
The Dallas Morning News spoke with Candanoza’s father, David Candanoza, who said his son was a Marine Corps veteran who enlisted right after graduating high school in 2014. He served for five years and then joined the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, working as a courtesy patrol technician and then a deputy until this past July, when he joined the Terrell Police Department. Candanoza was married with a daughter.
Johnson’s mother and father, Charles E. Johnson, are co-pastors of Temple of Deliverance Full Gospel Church in Sidon. Darrian Johnson is a musician and plays the drums and keyboard at the church.
Mary Johnson is also an administrator with the Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School District.
Speaking from Texas, to where she and her husband had traveled following their son’s arrest, Mary Johnson said what her son has been charged with is completely out of character. She said he has no criminal background other than once receiving a minor seat-belt violation.
Darrian Johnson is a graduate of Amanda Elzy High School and Mississippi State University, where he received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree.
He is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and owned his own clothing line called Rare Commodity Clothing.
He had owned a section of the Midway Hotel complex that was torn down by the city of Greenwood earlier this year after wind damage made the dilapidated structure even more precarious. Johnson had envisioned turning his portion of the complex into a two-floor retail and restaurant space, but those plans were derailed by the storm and the apparent difficulty in raising financing for what he estimated would be a $3.2 million project.
Johnson and his mother, who owned a smaller section of the complex, had cooperated with the city on the demolition.
- Contact Kevin Edwards at 662-581-7233 or kedwards@gwcommonwealth.com. Contact Ruthie Robison at 662-581-7235 or rrobison@gwcommonwealth.com.
