As Covington police continued to search Tuesday for a man who snatched a woman's purse in a Wal-Mart parking lot, then ran over and killed her, the victim's family, already torn by two recent tragedies, began working through another heartache.
According to her public Facebook profile, Marsha Johnson, 65, of Covington, was a retired senior lab tech for C.R. Bard, a manufacturer of medical devices.
Channel 2 Action News reported Johnson’s husband died recently, and her son is battling cancer.
The victim’s niece, Jamie Johnson, called her aunt an “honorable woman” who “loved her family, her kids.”
Jamie Johnson said the suspect had no reason to steal from her aunt..
“This woman would give you the shirt off her back,” Jamie Johnson told Channel 2.
Officers responded to a robbery call Monday around 7:45 p.m. at the Wal-Mart at 10300 Industrial Boulevard, just off Exit 95 on I-20 eastbound.
When they arrived, they found Johnson lying in the parking lot after being struck by a vehicle multiple times, Capt. Craig Treadwell with Covington police told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“It’s a brutal crime,” he said.
The suspect took Johnson’s white or tan purse, jumped in his vehicle and ran over her more than once as he escaped, Treadwell said. He fled the scene in a silver or gray mid- to late-1990s Honda Accord that may have a dealer drive-out tag, according to police.
Johnson was transported to Newton Medical Center, where she died.
The suspect was described as a man with a dark goatee who weighs 250 to 300 pounds, Treadwell said. He was wearing a dark-colored hoodie, blue jeans and white tennis shoes. A woman was in the passenger’s seat of his vehicle as he left the parking lot.
Authorities pulled surveillance footage of the parking lot in a search for more information Monday night, Treadwell said.
“We’re looking for help to solve this,” he said.
Jamie Johnson pleaded for her aunt’s killer come forward.
“If you have a heart,” she said, “face your consequences.”
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