West Michigan law enforcement agencies and elected officials reacted to video depicting the brutal attack on 29-year-old Tyre Nichols by Memphis police.
Son of Portage couple found buried in woods arraigned on murder charges
Updated Feb 18, 2021;
Facebook Share
KALAMAZOO, MI The son of Portage couple found buried last Friday in the Gourdneck State Game Area was arraigned Thursday on two counts of open murder and three other felony charges.
Nicholas Alexander Johnson, 27, is suspected by police to have killed his parents: Gary Johnson, 65, and Laura Johnson, 64. He was arraigned, Thursday, Feb. 18 on two counts of open murder, two counts of felony firearm and one count of felon in possession of a firearm.
Nicholas Johnson has been held at the Kalamazoo County Jail since Feb. 9, when he was arrested on two outstanding warrants and two new felony firearms charges issued the day of his arrest. Johnson was arraigned on those charges in Kalamazoo County District Court on Feb. 10.
A search for Gary and Laura Johnson began early Tuesday, Feb. 9. Authorities believe they located the couple's bodies Friday afternoon, Feb. 12 at the Gourdneck State Game Area.
UPDATE - PORTAGE MI (WKZO AM/FM) - A search for two missing Portage residents in the Gourdneck Lake preserve has turned up two bodies, but authorities.
Kalamazoo’s homicide victims of 2020 remembered
Updated Jan 04, 2021;
Posted Jan 01, 2021
(Top from left) Royalty Houston-Hooper, McKenna Dutkiewicz, Carmen Hughes, Londrell Cook, Cornelius Fredricks and Dondreal Watkins. (Bottom from left) DeVante Coleman, Brandon Kelley, Michael Clopton III, Rachel Curl, Victor Davis and Robert James Richardson Jr.
Facebook Share
There were more than 70
non-fatal shootings and 13 homicides due to gun violence within Kalamazoo city limits in 2020. Overall, there were 14 homicides in Kalamazoo: three in Portage, two in Kalamazoo Township, one in Oshtemo Township and one in Richland Township, bringing the countywide homicide count to 21.
The total surpasses the previous century mark of 20 homicides in 2016. That year, 11 of the 20 deaths occurred during two mass killings one in February when Uber driver Jason Dalton shot and killed six people and wounded two others, and one in June when Charles Pickett Jr. drove his truck into a group of