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Florida mom was on phone with soldier son when he was shot

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By JASON WITZ

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: November 6, 2009

DEEP CREEK - Roxanne Johnson refused to hang up the phone.

Her son's voice had vanished amid the screaming and sudden chaos at the military base. Johnson continued to listen, uncertain whether the background noise was real or a video game.

It would turn out to be her worst fear.

Justin Johnson, a 2006 Charlotte High School graduate who enlisted in the U.S. Army to pay for college, is recovering from multiple gunshot wounds, following the murderous rampage of a fellow soldier.

Thirteen people were killed, and many more were injured in Thursday's shooting spree at Fort Hood, the sprawling Texas base that serves as a last stop for many troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

On Friday, Roxanne Johnson sat in her home in Deep Creek, an unincorporated community in Charlotte County, still connected to the phone call she never finished. Every so often, she could hear voices on the other line, making small talk as they walked past her son's phone.

"I just want to make sure my son is OK," she told SNN News 6 Friday.

Johnson said she had been talking to Justin during a lunch break Thursday. And as usual, she was giving the 21-year-old Army track vehicle mechanic her usual pep talk.

Family members say Justin joined the military on Sept. 11, 2008, hoping the skills learned would fund his college tuition and land him a good-paying job. His unit was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan sometime in January, according to his grandmother, Estella Simons.

But something strange happened while Roxanne Johnson chatted with Justin; something, that at first, she thought was one of his pranks.

Johnson, in an interview broadcast by CNN, said she heard three distant noises, "doosh, doosh, doosh," through the telephone receiver and wondered if Justin had turned up the volume on a video game to be funny.

Then, without warning, she said there was screaming and crying coming from the other line. Justin did not answer.

Johnson continued to listen as the incident unfolded at Fort Hood. She took the phone to work to have some coworkers hear the noises, as she was not certain if it was real, according to a televised interview.

Hours passed before Johnson knew her son had been shot.

Simons said Justin sustained two bullet wounds -- one to the leg, the other to his lungs.

"I'm so happy he's not in the morgue," Simons said.

The family was scheduled to fly to Texas Friday evening to be at the hospital with Justin, who remained in intensive care, Simons said. He is expected to survive the injuries.

Charlotte High Principal Barney Duffy said Justin was a very respectful and likable student, a star on the football field for the Tarpons. The team had a moment of silence at Friday's game.

"He's the kind of kid that every father wants to have as a son," Duffy said. "To have somebody that you know be part of such a tragedy, it really drives it home."

Authorities say Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old Army psychiatrist, is reportedly the man responsible for the massacre. He was in the preparation stage of deployment to the Middle East, according to media reports.

Simons said she prayed that God would spare Hasan's life so he could know love, as Justin and others know it.

Roxanne Johnson said she is in denial over the ordeal.

She is waiting, hoping Justin will pick up the other line and tell her everything is OK.

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