Jul 27, 2006  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO J  | COMMENTS     

A 24-year-old lesbian was shot to death July 11 in Southeast D.C., in apparent retaliation for her cooperation with prosecutors in a murder investigation and possibly because of her openness about her sexual orientation, members of her family said.

Police say they have no evidence to indicate anti-gay bias played a role in the killing of Laquanda “Swoop” Johnson, a resident of Temple Hills, Md.

But homicide detectives are looking into the possibility that Johnson’s slaying is linked to her decision to cooperate with prosecutors in a trial last month of a man convicted of murdering one of Johnson’s close friends in 2004.

 “She was open and out as a lesbian,” said transgender activist GiGi Thomas, Johnson’s aunt.

 “We have reason to believe certain people didn’t like her because of who she was and because of her cooperation in that trial,” Thomas said.

Johnson was gunned down as she stood next to a friend about 1:30 a.m. July 11 outside an apartment building at 22nd Street and Southern Avenue, S.E., next to the Prince Georges County, Md., line, according to a police statement.

Police charged Alphonce Little, 20, of the 3400 block of 22nd St., S.E., with first-degree murder while armed in connection with Johnson’s slaying. Police apprehended Little on the day Johnson was shot after a nearby resident came forward as a witness to the shooting, court records show.

Johnson’s killing was one of about a dozen murders that occurred in the District during a two-week period in July. The murders prompted D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams to declare a crime emergency. Although other news media outlets, including the Washington Post, reported Johnson’s murder, none disclosed that she was a lesbian.

Johnson’s slaying also took place two months after Crystal Smith, 20, who was also gay, was shot to death May 16 near her home on the 400 block of 33rd Street, S.E.

Lt. Robert Glover of the police homicide squad said police have yet to make an arrest and the case is under active investigation.

Glover declined to comment on reports by friends and relatives of Smith that people in the neighborhood know who the killer is but are afraid to cooperate with police out of fear of retaliation. He said police are offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the killing.

Similar to the Johnson case, Smith’s mother and friends believe Smith was singled out for the slaying at least in part because of her sexual orientation. But police investigators, including Sgt. Brett Parson, commander of the department’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit, said they have no evidence to classify the Smith shooting as an anti-gay hate crime.

Karen Bolling, Johnson’s mother, said her daughter was scheduled to be a witness in the murder trial last month of Lennell Cooper, 26. A D.C. Superior Court jury convicted Cooper of killing Terrence Jones in an April 2004 shooting that occurred on the same block where Johnson was killed, court records show. Bolling said Jones was a close friend of Johnson.

Bolling said prosecutors never called Johnson to the witness stand, but it was well known in the community that Johnson cooperated with police in their investigation into the Jones murder. Her daughter’s name was on the official trial witness list, Bolling said.

Her other two daughters did testify at the trial, Bolling said, after the U.S. Attorney’s office placed them and Johnson in a witness protection program. According to Bolling, the program included arranging for her three daughters to stay at a hotel outside of D.C.

“The U.S. attorney said they could stay there for two weeks after the trial,” Bolling said. “But the day after the trial ended, the government stopped paying the bills,” Bolling said. “I feel the government used us to get a conviction and then left them out to the wolves.”

Channing Phillips, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office, said he could not comment on the possible motive in Johnson’s murder because developments surrounding her death are part of an ongoing investigation.

Police and the U.S. attorney’s office have declined to say whether Little was a friend of Cooper’s or had ties to Cooper.

Girlfriend’s photos banned

Bolling said the trauma her family experienced as a result of Johnson’s death was heightened by developments surrounding her daughter’s funeral. Bolling said she and her mother turned to Union Temple Baptist Church in Anacostia for the funeral after another church declined to perform the service.

Rev. Willie Wilson, the controversial pastor of Union Temple, who denounced lesbians in a sermon ...