A wellness check from the New York Police Department led to the discovery of dismembered remains in a Bronx home. Police say their prime suspect was a well-known criminal justice activist.
Residents on the sixth floor of an apartment on Odgen Ave and West 162nd reported a chilling scene to police Tuesday night, per The New York Post. “Please don’t! I have a family!” residents said they heard bellowing from the mouth of a man followed by two gunshots. Neighbors then told the superintendent they saw 48-year-old Sheldon Johnson - who was not a tenant - coming in and out of the apartment. Surveillance camera footage showed Johnsons changing into bizarre disguises: once in a yellow hoodie holding cleaning supplies, another time wearing a suit jacket and hat and another time wearing a blonde wig.
The super then called the police to request a wellness check, the report says.
When police responded to the call, the report says they were prepared to conduct a welfare check but Johnson answered the door normally, and stepped outside to let them inspect. Originally, the cops didn’t find anything. But once they obtained the search warrant… they found a whole crime scene in that apartment.
Read more from The Daily Beast:
They obtained a search warrant, and discovered Small’s torso and foot inside a large blue bin. The other foot, as well as his arms, legs, and decapitated head, were found inside the apartment’s freezer, sources told the Daily News.
The remains were identified as that of Colin Small, 44. Police said Small was pronounced dead at the scene. His relationship to Johnson was not immediately clear, but law enforcement sources told the New York Post that the two may have had “a beef” dating back to their time together in Westchester County’s notorious Sing Sing prison.
Johnson had just done a 180 on life after being released from prison after serving 25 years, he explained on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. He’d embarked on a new path of advocacy, using his experience in the system to help others and even network with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. He was currently serving as a counselor for the Queens Defenders public firm.
Now, he’s facing charges of manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.
What’s more perplexing? The crime itself or the fact that Johnson was supposedly delivered from his dark past?