On Tuesday morning, the body of 20-year -old DeAndre Joshua was found near the Canfield Greens Apartments in Ferguson. The young man was shot to death. His body was discovered still behind the wheel of his white Pontiac Grand Prix, and identified by family members. Joshua had been shot through the drivers side window, reported KTVI.
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar would only confirm the identity of the victim, and that the case is under investigation. While officials would not say if Joshua was in fact, a witness to the shooting death of Michael Brown, nor if he actually provided testimony to the grand jury which ultimately cleared Officer Darren Wilson of any wrongdoing in the shooting, his murder does point to a retribution-type killing
The Last Refuge blog reported:
All of the eye-witnesses were African American. If you read the reports the sense of fear about speaking the truth is overwhelming. Several of the eye-witnesses, who gave honest testimony to the Grand Jury, were, according to their own statements, warned immediately after the shooting to keep their mouths shut. Many, if not all, of the witness statements outlined in police reports, FBI reports, and later in Grand Jury testimony -who testified to the factual events as outlined by officer Wilson, and whose testimony fit the physical and forensic evidence- were threatened by the local Canfield Greens community. On the day Brown was killed, Ferguson police detectives interviewed, or attempted to interview dozens of people who lived in the area, who would have been likely to see or hear what transpired prior to the fatal shooting.
However, nearly all of their efforts went in vain, as few would even speak to them. One (documented in the police report) woman explained the threat posed by speaking to police in the gang-infested neighborhood, telling detectives: I have to live here.
Joshua graduated from Beaumont High School and was working at a local Walmart.
It is known that he was a close friend to Dorian Johnson, who was with Brown when he was killed on Aug 9, and while police have not confirmed that Johnson had any ties to local gangs, he has posted several photos of himself, in which he is flashing gang signs.
As the gangland saying goes: Snitches get stitches!