A Clayton County school bus driver was found shot to death in her car at a gas station south of Riverdale last week, just hours after she completed her final bus route for summer school.
Camesha Johnson died June 29 after she was shot once in the shoulder, Clayton police said. According to Johnson’s family, the single shot went through her shoulder and struck her heart as she sat at a BP station on the corner of Ga. 85 and Thomas Road.
After the shooting, Johnson’s car was found parked haphazardly in front of the station, with both of its front wheels over the curb and facing directly at a power pole.
It was parked there for about two hours before someone checked on her and called 911, police confirmed. She was holding her phone in her right hand when she was found, her sister Jeffrica Hunter told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Officers were called to the BP shortly before midnight after getting reports of a person shot, police said. They notified Charles Johnson, Camesha’s husband, that she was dead and he immediately called her parents, Hunter said. The gas station is around the corner from her parents’ house, Hunter said, so their father drove to the crime scene to speak with police.
Hunter said her family has gotten few answers from detectives so far, but Clayton police spokeswoman Julia Isaac said the investigation is in its preliminary stages and that details are limited.
According to Hunter, Camesha Johnson called their mother after she finished her bus route and said she planned to go out to dinner with her husband that night.
As the investigation has stretched beyond a week with no arrests, Hunter said her family was saddened that Johnson’s killing had received so little attention. Hunter said she wasn’t even sure if the kids on her sister’s bus route had been informed. The Clayton school system has not made any public statements about Johnson’s death, and school representatives were not available for comment due to the summer break.
Johnson frequently parked at the gas station when she wanted a few moments to herself, Hunter said. Typically, she would park behind the BP, out of sight of the convenience store’s entrance but in full view of the strip mall that wraps around the station. The awkward position of Johnson’s car when she was found suggests that she was trying to drive away around the time of the shooting, Hunter said.
Hunter said her family doesn’t know if there were any witnesses or if any other businesses caught the shooting on camera. Police have not shared further details about the investigation.
Johnson’s body has been released to the family after an autopsy at GBI headquarters, Hunter said. They plan to hold her funeral at the banquet hall of Hope Funeral Home in Fayetteville on July 16 at 1 p.m.
About the Author
