51ºÚÁÏ

Dorian Johnson was fatally shot about 9:30 a.m. Sunday in the 9600 block of Abaco Court.

Police arrested a woman at the scene without incident. The woman claimed she shot Johnson in self-defense, authorities said.

51ºÚÁÏ County Prosecutor Melissa Price Smith said Monday morning that her office had not yet made a decision on charges against the suspect.

Johnson was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy was scheduled for Monday.

A Ferguson police spokeswoman, Patricia Washington, said police officers were not involved in the shooting — contrary to rumors that spread quickly on social media.

Johnson, 33, gained national notoriety as a witness to the 2014 fatal shooting of Michael Brown by Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson.

Johnson was with Brown on Aug. 9, 2014, when the shooting happened, and was the only known witness to the entire event. Johnson had claimed that Wilson kept shooting after Brown put his hands up.

Johnson’s account spawned the “hands up, don’t shoot� narrative that fueled the months-long Ferguson protest movement, but the Department of Justice found Johnson’s account was not credible compared with other evidence.

Johnson went on to file a lawsuit against Wilson and former Ferguson police Chief Tom Jackson. He claimed his constitutional rights were violated when the officer stopped him on the street “without reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.� The suit also claimed that Wilson’s actions were part of a pattern and practice of misconduct by Ferguson police.

In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from Johnson after his suit was thrown out by a federal appeals court. The lower courts had ruled that Johnson’s rights were not violated because Johnson was free to go when Wilson initially stopped the two on the street.

Johnson eventually moved out of state because he said he needed a fresh start. The lawsuit listed his address as Metairie, La.

On Sunday morning, neighbors heard screams and an argument before Johnson was shot in the apartment. Police said it was domestic dispute but did not provide a motive.

Late Sunday morning, police were waiting for a search warrant so they could enter the apartment complex where the shooting happened and look for evidence.

The woman was arrested, held for 24 hours but released Monday pending charges.

Soon after Sunday morning’s shooting of Johnson, false rumors spread quickly that an officer was somehow involved, which Washington said was bogus. The lies were repeated on social media, including from conspiracy theorists who claimed the last witness to Brown’s killing was being eliminated.

Some Ferguson police officers, when they responded to the scene of the shooting on Sunday, were quickly surrounded and people were yelling, Washington said.

“That shows how raw these emotions still are,� she said.

Ferguson police countered the lie, Washington said, by telling people on social media that Sunday’s incident did not involve police.

Monday afternoon, several police officers met at the apartment complex with a 51ºÚÁÏ County police dog and searched the courtyard near the shooting scene.

Officers said they were conducting a second search for evidence.

Daniel Neman and Dana Rieck of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.