A woman has learned her fate after shooting and killing a teenager she thought was attempting to break into her sister’s vehicle.
Zariah Johnson, 23, was sentenced on Thursday to 32 years in prison plus 15 years of extended supervision for the death of 14-year-old Alijah Golden-Richmond last year, according to Milwaukee, Wisconsin news outlets, including Fox affiliate WITI. Johnson pleaded guilty in July to first-degree reckless homicide.
The fatal shooting occurred on August 15, 2024, near 39th and Vliet streets in Milwaukee. According to a criminal complaint reviewed by Law&Crime, Johnson was at home with her family when she discovered her sister’s car had been broken into. When she looked outside, she noticed four people near her car and “armed herself with her mother’s black handgun.”
According to a witness with the victim, Golden-Richmond “wanted to steal a car,” and as they were moving around the neighborhood, they spotted Johnson’s sister’s blue-green Hyundai. However, after the victim reportedly broke the car window, they heard a voice from inside a nearby building exclaim “mmhmmm,” according to WITI, and fled.
According to the complaint, their escape was insufficient to ensure their safety because Johnson pursued them. Still armed with the gun, she got into her sister’s car and pursued the fleeing individuals.
The same witness stated that they saw the car approaching them from an alley, so they “hid on the front porch of a house and the car stopped.” After Johnson fired in the air, they fled, and she “started shooting in their direction and hit dirt by his feet,” the complaint states. The witness reported that none of them were armed.
Johnson later told police that she had no intention of physically harming anyone; she simply wanted to “scare” them.
But she had caused physical harm.
When detectives arrived on the scene, they realized citizens believed the victim was overdosing and administered two doses of Narcan. In reality, he had been shot in the back, the bullet passing through his liver, heart, and chest cavity. He died, and five bullet casings were discovered in the area.
Johnson initially denied responsibility, claiming that a man named “Neff” was behind the shooting. But when she learned that someone close to her had accused her of the crime, she changed her tune.
“After [Johnson] was advised that a witness said the shooter was a female and that her own mother had said she was the shooter, [Johnson] began to cry and said she did not intend to kill anyone,” according to the police. She later “admitted she was the shooter.”
The 23-year-old woman stated that when she drove near the four people, “she was not sure if they were the ones who broke into her car.” According to police, she circled the block and returned, yelling something to get their attention.
This prompted two of them to flee, ostensibly the witness and Golden-Richmond, before Johnson opened fire “until her gun jammed.” She told police that “she did not observe actually hitting anyone,” and that the two people continued to flee.
But Johnson would soon realize she was in trouble. When she returned home, she “found a Facebook Live stream with the person she shot.” According to the complaint, the person recording said the person was overdosing, but it was later discovered that he had been shot in the back and died.
“She then realized that this was in the area she had fired shots and that she likely is the person who killed him,” according to reports. “She then told her mother and left the area with a gun.”
Johnson reportedly told police where she disposed of the gun, but when they searched the location, they found nothing. Her mother, who told police she rode shotgun while her daughter went on the hunt for the individuals, claimed Johnson told her she had thrown her gun down a sewer.
