‘He didn’t get to live his potential.’ Family mourns 19-year-old killed at Virginia Beach gas station

It was almost time for Jawan Johnson to graduate high school.

The 19-year-old was a week and a half away from getting his diploma from Salem High School in Virginia Beach through the Renaissance Academy, with sights set on pursuing football or making music.

“He loved music,” said his aunt Sheri Johnson. Jawan Johnson had been living in her household on-and-off for the last three years when, on Tuesday night, he was fatally shot outside a Sunoco gas station on Lynnhaven Parkway in Virginia Beach.

“He was the son I never had,” Sheri Johnson said.

Virginia Beach police haven’t announced any arrests in the slaying, other than saying the gunman is “known.” Police have refused multiple requests to provide more information on the suspected shooter, stating that the investigation is active, ongoing and “no further information can be released at this time.” A police incident report identifies a suspect vehicle seen leaving the scene.

Jawan Johnson’s family is planning a candlelight vigil at the gas station for 9 p.m. Friday, Sheri Johnson said. She expects a big crowd, adding that hundreds have already stopped by the scene of the shooting to grieve.

An athlete who wrestled and played football, Jawan Johnson collected numerous connections on teams at Salem and Catholic High School. He was also close with his family — a huge network of relatives spread throughout Virginia Beach, Sheri Johnson said.

Already the oldest of six siblings, Jawan Johnson felt like a brother in Sheri Johnson’s household. Sheri Johnson’s eldest daughter, Shavivor Mitchell, 21, said she and Jawan Johnson would call each other “FC,” short for favorite cousin.

“So we would be like, ‘FC can you take me to the store, can you take me this place, can you take me that place,’” Mitchell said. “I wish he could just ask me that one more time.”

Jawan Johnson always listened to his aunt, Sheri Johnson said, taking out the trash every Friday and mowing the lawn whenever she asked. On one occasion, when Sheri Johnson thanked him in a text message for putting out the garbage, her nephew replied that she didn’t need to thank him — it’s what he was supposed to do, he wrote.

Jawan Johnson was also supposed to prepare the chicken for a family dinner Tuesday night — Sheri Johnson’s 15-year-old daughter was tasked with the macaroni — when Sheri Johnson had stepped out to pick up a few ingredients from the grocery store.

But Jawan wasn’t there when Sheri got home. She got the text message minutes later: her nephew had been shot.

She and her children rushed to the gas station, only a seven minute drive from their home. There, Sheri Johnson said she saw her nephew’s body, lying uncovered for three hours as police investigated the scene.

A police spokesperson said officers at the scene extended the crime scene and placed privacy screens and strategically parked patrol cars around Jawan Johnson to prevent the crowd that had gathered from seeing him. Still, Sheri Johnson said the image of her nephew that night is seared into her mind, flashing by every time she closes her eyes.

Sheri Johnson later learned that someone picked her nephew up in a car shortly before the shooting. She doesn’t know why that person was picking him up, she said.

“I’m still working on it trying to put pieces together, but more than anything, I want answers,” she said.

Sheri Johnson knows, though, that she doesn’t want other families to see a loved one’s body uncovered at a crime scene.

“I’m in a place now where I want to fight for laws in my nephew’s name,” Sheri Johnson said.

Sheri Johnson has been working hard to share memories of her nephew in the meantime, posting photos of him daily to her social media accounts. It helps to have family to mourn with nearby, but she said it will “be a long road ahead for all of us.”

“He didn’t get to live his potential,” Sheri Johnson said. “He was good on the football field, he’s good with music. Anything he wanted to do, he could’ve did it and been successful.”

Ali Sullivan, 757-677-1974, ali.sullivan@virginiamedia.com