Joseph Lamar Johnson was killed in an ambush outside his Muncie home in the early morning hours of February 5, 2017, about a day after his 39th birthday. At approximately 4:15 a.m. in front of his residence in the 1500 block of South Perishing Drive, three gunmen opened fire and struck him multiple times; the Delaware County Coroner described the attack as an execution. First responders found Johnson, a Black male identified as 38 in some reports, deceased at the scene.

Known as Joey Crackk, he was a father of seven who had recently welcomed a new baby and had plans to start a construction company. Friends and family remembered him for drawing and restoring houses. The crime scene produced numerous evidence markers and detectives treated it as the city’s first homicide of the year.

The Muncie Police Department, the FBI and the ATF have all been involved, but no arrests have been announced and the case remains unsolved. His mother, Brenda McCoy, has kept up public appeals for information and has named a man incarcerated in Madison County as a suspect, though investigators have not found enough evidence to charge anyone. Does anyone have information that could help bring justice for Joseph Johnson?