HOUSTON – The mother of the teen who was shot and killed by his girlfriend's father after he caught them together in her Spring bedroom is speaking out.
Zakia McCormick says her 17-year-old son, Johran, grew up with a smile as big as his dreams.
"He had so many goals that he always talked about," said McCormick. "He was thinking about the air force, and also owning his own business, being a doctor. He had a lot of dreams."
His friends would see him flash that same smile through out the halls of Klein Collins High School.
"He always knew how to cheer everybody up, make everybody laugh," said Emily Meija. "He was always walking around school being happy, being himself. He was really smart, he had good grades and it seemed like he had a bright future ahead of him."
Meija and Johran would walk to the bus stop together every day during the week. She heard the news of his death over spring break and was devastated.
"Just the thought of him being gone just really hurts all of us because we were all really close to him and it hurts that he's gone," Meija
said.
Johran was shot and killed early Thursday morning inside a home in Spring, Texas. After speaking with witnesses, deputies from the Harris County Sheriff's Office stated that Johran was "let in to the home" and "did not break in."
According to investigators, around 2:20 a.m. the homeowner found Johran in his 16-year-old daughter's bedroom.
"There was an altercation between the father and the 17-year-old and during that altercation the father shot the teenager," said Sgt. Ben Beall, who is a homicide detective with HCSO.
Investigators told Local 2 the 55-year-old father argued with the Johran after his 16-year-old daughter denied knowing him. Deputies said the father thought he saw Johran reach for a weapon and that's why he pulled the trigger.
"He doesn't have any weapons. He's not that type of kid," said Shanell Corley, who is a relative. "No play guns, no water guns, no nothing. And for his life just to be taken away from us like this -- it hurts, it hurts. He's not supposed to be at anyone's house at that time. And if we knew he was back in Texas, his curfew at home is 10. He respects his curfew."
When officers knocked on McCormick's door at 8 a.m. Thursday morning she couldn't believe the news that her son was gone. The last time she saw him was in New Orleans, where the family was vacationing.
"He was visiting his father, I left to head back to Houston, and his birth mother was supposed to bring him back to Houston and drop him off at my house," McCormick said. "I wasn't expecting him until Sunday, when spring break was over. When the detectives came to my door and told me my son was dead, I kept arguing with them and said, 'No, you have the wrong person, my son is in New Orleans.'"
According Johran's mom, another relative dropped him off at a friend's house back in Houston without telling her.
"I have never heard of the girl he was dating," McCormick said. "I didn't know he was dating anyone. I just don't understand why my son is gone. The man that killed him should have been arrested. It was murder, it was murder."
Friends are mourning the young man's death.
"Its going to be weird on Monday because he won't be in class. I will look over at his seat, and he won't be there," said Johran's classmate Emily.
Because Johran was adopted by Zakia when he was a newborn, she wanted to give him a better life. She never could have imagined a life for him that would end like this.
The case has been handed over to a District Attorney's office, and a grand jury will decide weather the 55-year-old father will face charges.
There will be a memorial service held for Johran Sunday at 3 p.m. at Plymouth United Church in Spring.