A 31-year-old man was arrested on Monday and charged with murder for the January slaying of 43-year-old Denton man and University of North Texas food service worker Cory Johnson.
Denton Police announced that Darontay Dashield was in custody for the fatal shooting that took place inside Johnson’s apartment on January 11.
Police who responded to a 911 call of possible gunfire in the 1000 block of Eagle Drive arrived at an apartment to find Johnson suffering from multiple gunshot wounds and calling for help.
Johnson spoke briefly to first responders before they transported him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Because the investigation is ongoing, police have not revealed what Johnson said prior to his death.
Witnesses told police they saw a man sprinting through the apartment complex just after the shooting.
Further interviews and investigation apparently revealed that the suspect and victim knew each other and that Dashield had stayed with Johnson in the same apartment where Johnson was murdered.
Police arrested Dashield on Monday afternoon in the 500 block of Robertson Street in Denton, just blocks from Denton’s downtown and historic courthouse.
Officials have not yet disclosed whether they know the reason for the murder.
As the weeks passed after the murder, Johnson’s family members urged Denton police to find his killer. The case remained cold for over four months.
Johnson’s sister, Tiphony Barton, told NBC 5 DFW that Johnson was a church-going, community-involved volunteer.
The Dwelling Place Transformation Center, a Denton church where Barton pastors, renamed its food bank to Cory’s Food Foundation to honor its late volunteer.
“It hurts,” Barton told NBC 5 DFW. “It hurts real bad because now I can’t depend or lean on my brother or call him when I want to.”
The Dallas Express contacted Denton County District Attorney Paul Johnson for comment on his office’s plans to prosecute Dashield but did not receive a response by press time.
Murders and non-negligent manslaughters continue to plague the Metroplex, the City of Dallas in particular.
According to the Dallas Police Department’s crime analytics dashboard, murder and non-negligent manslaughter have increased by 22.4% year-over-year. DPD reported 93 cases this year as of Thursday afternoon, 17 more than last year at this time.
