In the early morning hours of April 7, 2021, two men were killed in the parking lot of the Takoma Overlook Condominiums in Takoma Park, Maryland. James Lionel Johnson, 38, of District Heights, and his companion Dominique Williams, 32, of Hyattsville, were shot by an off-duty Pentagon Force Protection Agency police officer who lived in the complex. Both men were taken to a nearby hospital but died of their wounds.

The shooter, identified as David Hall Dixon, told officers he believed he had witnessed a car break-in and that he fired after the men failed to follow his commands as they fled. Investigators, however, said surveillance footage showed Dixon firing after the vehicle had already passed him and that both Johnson and Williams were shot in the back, a sequence inconsistent with a claim of immediate self-defense. Dixon was arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree assault for firing at a third occupant of the vehicle who was uninjured.

The case record also notes a prior allegation that Dixon had assaulted a woman with a shotgun at the same apartment complex about a year earlier. Does anyone have information about Johnson’s life or movements in the Takoma Park area that could help clarify what happened that night?