Photo: Baton Rouge Police Department & Facebook
Police are calling it an 'evil act.'
By Sanika Nalgirkar — Written on Apr 20, 2022
Social media has become a platform where people share everything about their lives. It has evolved quite a bit over the years and now, people try to post minor details about their lives with other people.
However, this man definitely went too far by live-streaming a murder on social media.
35-year-old Earl Lee Johnson Jr. streamed footage of himself killing 34-year-old woman, Janice David in a car in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The Louisiana man was seen attacking David in the Instagram live.
The police stated that Johnson beat, choked and stabbed David multiple times while livestreaming the whole event on Instagram. The stream lasted around 15 minutes which has now been deleted.
Johnson has been charged with first-degree murder by Baton Rouge Police.
Someone saw the video on Instagram and reported it. Instagram which is owned by Facebook then reported the crime to the state police which started the investigation.
The police mentioned that David’s body was found at around 10 pm in a car that was parked in a parking lot of an office building.
David was naked and had been tied to the steering wheel with jumper cables.
When the police found out about the video, Johnson was already in their custody. Reportedly, Johnson had been caught committing another crime earlier that day.
He had stolen someone else’s car and had been taken into custody by the police at around 5pm.
Earl Lee Johnson reportedly confessed to killing Janice David after his arrest.
ohnson also mentioned that he forcefully held David in the car as she tried to escape when he attacked her.
He also attempted to set the car on fire. However, he fled the scene when he failed to do so.
Johnson and David reportedly knew each other. The two had been excessively doing drugs before the murder.
Sgt. L’Jean McKneely said, "Apparently they were involved in some drug usage together for a couple of days and the end result—as everyone has seen on Facebook Live—is a very gruesome, very evil act."
The police mentioned that David’s family had been contacted about her murder. None of the family members knew Johnson and were shocked to hear about the attack.
“Very horrible, very horrible. She didn’t deserve to die like this…no one does,” David’s Godmother, Terri Austin, said.
“I really thought you know when they say she died that it would have been a vehicle wreck or something like that, wouldn’t [ever] dream that someone would do this to her.”
Austin also further revealed that she had been aware of David's drug problem.
She said, “She was caught up in a world I guess you could say that you know it was hard for her to get away from."
New information is expected to be revealed later as the investigation is still ongoing. The police mentioned that they will be able to obtain more information when they hear from the coroner's office after the autopsy.
Sanika Nalgirkar, M.F.A. is a writer who covers entertainment & news, lifestyle, and pop culture topics.