Ryan Johnson was 28 and a welder when he was killed in the Brightwaters Apartments parking lot near 23rd Street and Southwest Boulevard in Tulsa on April 24, 2019. According to witness accounts and police reports, Johnson arrived with his girlfriend and was confronted in the lot by 21-year-old Travonta Deron Ashley, the father of the woman’s child. Ashley reportedly came up to the car with a shotgun, pushed or shoved the gun into or toward the vehicle, and fired once into Johnson’s upper back at close range. Neighbors called 911; Johnson was taken to a hospital in critical condition and later pronounced dead.

Officers located Ashley near the complex that night, detained and arrested him, and he was initially booked on a first-degree murder charge. Court filings show the charge was later reduced and resolved by a guilty plea to first-degree manslaughter. Johnson’s funeral was held in Muskogee in early May. If anyone knew Ryan, was in that parking lot, or has information about what led up to the shooting, please share what is known.