Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 28, 1993 TAG: 9301280056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A WAY OF LIFE BECOMING WAY OF DEATH
AN ARGUMENT over a $5 sports bet and the theft of a $250 leather coat sparked a feud that ended the life of Percy Johnson, according to the man who owned the coat.
Sharieff Omar isn't sure the shooting is over.
Four days after his best friend was charged with murder, he recounted events that led up to the killing of another teen-ager.
It was the theft of Omar's $250 leather coat that put Dwayne Carlos Miller and Percy Johnson on a fatal collision course.
Saturday someone pulled out a semiautomatic pistol and blew the life out of Johnson, 17. Police have charged Miller, 18.
"I could see the streets of Roanoke getting worse," said Omar, 18. "It's going to get to the point that people are going to get used to it.
"Drugs don't have nothing to do with it. Everybody wants to go gangster-style. `I'm rougher than him. I'm tougher than him.' Everybody's got something to prove."
Omar provided the first detailed account of events that led up to the shooting. Police have confirmed that a feud over the theft of the leather coat probably led to Johnson's death, but they have provided few details.
"I knew that it wasn't going to get any better until someone got killed," Omar said. "I feel better that it's not me or Carlos who got killed."
Omar said the three teen-agers used to hang out together, but that was before Johnson and another young gunman robbed him of his coat on Jan. 11.
"I don't know what made him turn on me," Omar said. "That's when I knew I didn't have any friends but Carlos."
The feud began when Omar and Johnson were in an apartment on Ferncliff Avenue and started fussing over a $5 bet on the Virginia-Duke basketball game. "We were arguing because he didn't want to pay me the $5," Omar said.
Johnson became increasingly irritated and went to a back room to get a gun, Omar said.
" `I know you don't want to get no gun,' " Omar remembered telling him. " `I can handle you with my hands.' "
Johnson came back to the front room, but they didn't fight. Then he left the house.
Later, Omar looked through a sliding-glass door at the rear of the apartment and saw Johnson and a 13-year-old boy standing on a hill. Johnson hollered for Omar, who went up the hill to meet him.
"I'm tired of this . . .," he said Johnson told him. Johnson told the 13-year-old to pull out a gun, and he ordered Omar to drop his coat, Omar said.
Omar dropped the coat, and Johnson told the 13-year-old to shoot him, Omar said.
The first shot missed, he said, and the gun started misfiring.
"I heard, `Click! Click! Click!' " Omar said.
Omar fled, and as he ran away he heard several shots from a larger gun, which he assumed came from Johnson.
Several days later, Omar said, he was with Miller inside a restaurant on 11th Street Northwest, when they spotted two people outside. One of them was Johnson, wearing Omar's leather coat.
Omar said he and Miller walked outside and Johnson nervously glanced at their waistlines to see if they were carrying guns.
"You better take my coat off," Omar remembered telling Johnson.
"What's you going to do?" Omar recalled Johnson asking.
Omar said Johnson turned to his partner - a different one from the time before - and asked him for a gun. Omar said he started running, looking back over his shoulder as he ran.
He said he saw Miller cringe as Johnson bashed him in the ear with the gun.
Police gave no narrative but confirmed that Miller and Johnson had an "altercation" during the week before Johnson's death. Miller's mother told the newspaper that her son's ear had been pummeled in a fight with Johnson.
Over the next several days, they saw Johnson, with his friend, standing along 11th Street wearing the coat.
Then Omar and Miller starting hearing on the street that Johnson was threatening to kill them.
"Everything Percy did was for reputation," said Omar, who came from Washington, D.C. Friends started telling him that Johnson was bragging that he "thought D.C. niggers were hard. But I've got his coat."
Saturday, the feud ended.
It's unclear whether Miller or Johnson came together by choice or chance, but police say they met up on Bridge Street Southwest about 1 in the morning. Miller is accused of pumping seven shots into Johnson's body.
Omar said he regrets only that Miller is now in jail on a murder charge.
"The way I see it, he [Johnson] wanted to disrespect me to the utmost," Omar said. "It's no fun and games no more."
He said the rules of the game may get tougher with time. In D.C., where he had been on the streets since age 13, murder is a way of life. Omar roamed the streets because "basically I didn't have a choice," he said.
But Omar says he's trying to turn his life around. He works for the city's Parks and Recreation Department "to make sure the parks are clean." He rakes leaves in the fall and throws salt on the icy winter pavement.
Still, he's resigned to how quickly any life, including his own, can be snuffed out on the street.
"If it was meant for me not to be here, I wouldn't be here," he said.
Staff writer Diane Simpson contributed to this story.
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