Mother who lost son in shooting nearly shot at his memorial

By Reg Chapman

Click here for updates on this story

    MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A mother is sharing her horror and heartbreak after she lost her son in a Minneapolis shooting, and then was nearly shot herself.

It took every ounce of strength Cynthia Johnson had to walk across the street to the spot where her 21-year-old son was shot and killed.

It’s a role reversal for her. This former member of A Mother’s Love used to hold other mothers while making that walk. On this evening, it was her turn to be held up.

“The other night my son lost his life,” Johnson said.

Vintrez Johnson was gunned down outside an apartment complex near Fremont Avenue South in Uptown late Friday night. He died minutes later at the hospital.

“He didn’t have problems and situations. He never even really had a fight before,” she said.

She says her son was a gentle soul who recently became a father.

“Vintrez was not a person of the streets. He did not sell drugs, he did not gang bang, he was not out here in the streets. He was a dancer. He was in a lot of people’s videos,” she said.

She narrowly escaped another shooting at the same spot during a memorial for Vintrez over the weekend, which left behind shattered glass and flooded apartments.

“We as people, it’s about all of us. Not one person. A village that need to come together and stand and get our children back in order,” she said.

Johnson said her son wrote down what he needed to do to better himself.

“And he said at the end that he was trying to get back into church. Vintrez had things planned out,” she said.

Now all she can do is pray for justice, and for the community to rally around its children.

Police have not arrested anyone for either shooting.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.