Criminal Justice Matters: Alvin Johnson, 1903, Winn Parish, LA.
Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483


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From: Christmas Edition, 1903, Southern Sentinel

Ball Through His Neck

Alvin Johnson, Colored, Accidentally Shot

Died From Wound

Bullet Through Windpipe and Was Cut From Back of His Neck

Monday evening late an accident occurred at the residence of Mr. M. M.
Dickerson, near the High School building, which caused the death about twenty
hours later of Alvin Johnson, a colored boy about 18 years of age.  Johnson
had been convicted of some petit offense before court and sentenced to a term
in jail.  He was taken out of jail by Mr. Dickerson and worked about the
place.  Monday evening he was building a fire in the fireplace and saw a
pistol on the mantel.  He picked the gun up, cocked the hammer, unbreached it
and looked at it.  Huron Dickerson, about 12 years of age, told him to leave
the gun alone.  He handed the gun to the boy, forgetting to let the hammer
down, and told the boy to put it away somewhere.  The boy took the gun by the
stock and unthoughtedly touched the trigger.  The bullet was a .38 caliber and
struck the negro in the neck, going through his wind pipe and lodging under
the skin at the back of the neck.  

The negro was scared out of his wits, as was also the boy who did the
shooting.  The negro ran down town and was attended by Dr. J. J. Peters, who
extracted the bullet and sewed up the wound.  The negro lived till Wednesday
evening when he died.