Jaylen Johnson ‘hasn’t stopped crying’ since fatally shooting his mother as she entered their home in Olivette, Missouri (Picture: Olivette Police Department/Fox News)
A former college football player has been crying incessantly after allegedly mistaking his mother for a home intruder and shooting her dead.
Jaylen Johnson, 25, fatally shot Monica McNichols-Johnson, 56, ‘while she was trying to gain entry to the residence’ they shared, according to charging documents from the St Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Cops found Monica with a gunshot wound and despite life saving measures by paramedics, she was pronounced dead at the scene, stated the Olivette Police Department on Facebook.
Jaylen ‘knowingly or with the purpose of causing serious physical injury’ killed his mom with ‘assistance or aid of a deadly weapon’ on Thursday morning, state the documents.
The former college football player’s mother was pronounced dead at their home (Picture: Fox News)
His attorney Will Goldstein, who has long known the Johnsons, said his client did not intend to shoot his mother.
‘I got a frantic call from Monica’s father telling me what happened, that Jaylen thought an intruder was coming from the back door and he fired shots,’ Goldstein told KSDK.
‘This thing is all tragic and he hasn’t stopped crying since.
‘Jaylen loves his mom and his mom loved him… Jaylen immediately called 911 and immediately called his grandfather and said he can’t believe this happened.’
Jaylen Johnson has been charged with voluntary manslaughter and armed criminal action (Picture: Olivette Police Department)
But police wrote they believed Jaylen ‘poses a danger to the community’.
Jaylen was arrested hours after the shooting and charged with voluntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in the death of his mother, stated the police department. He is being held on a $100,000 bond at the St Louis County Jail.
Goldstein said he is hopeful Jaylen will get out on bond as he did not have a prior criminal history and was employed.
‘I can tell you he’s a mess right now,’ Goldstein said.
‘He was a college athlete and he’s a man with a bright future.
Knowing Monica as I did, she would want nothing more for her son than him to land on his feet and have a good life.’
The shooting happened at the Johnsons’ home on Huron Drive about 10 miles west of St Louis, Missouri.
It occurred more than a year after a 10-year-old boy allegedly shot his 44-year-old mother dead in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for refusing to buy him a VR headset.
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