Teen Out on Bond for Shooting Charged After Pointing Rifle at Spouse of Gun Shop Employee

Dominique Johnson is no stranger to the law. Earlier this year the 18-year-old was charged with five counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill after allegedly shooting at a car with five people, including three children, inside. 

Johnson was able to get out of jail before trial on those charges, however, when a judge in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina gave the teen a $60,000 bond. Johnson was ordered to wear an ankle monitor among other conditions of release, which helped lead police to him after he allegedly brandished a rifle at a woman outside of a Charlotte, North Carolina gun shop last weekend.

The incident happened at Watchdog Tactical, which is located almost adjacent to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s North Division building. Despite that proximity to law enforcement (and a healthy number of armed citizens), Watchdog Tactical employee Alex Wehner says Johnson brazenly pointed a gun at his wife for no reason. 

 He told Channel 9 that his wife was picking him up from work but when she pulled into the parking lot, she was met with the end of a gun barrel. 

“That’s the most terrifying she could have felt,” said Alex Wehner.

He’s grateful they were able to peel out unharmed.

“When someone threatens my family and loved ones, that’s when it really gets to me,” Wehner said.

Johnson bought ammo inside before the incident, Wehner said.

“We can see he’s doing something weird out there,” he said. 

Johnson walked to a suspected Uber and as Wehner’s wife pulled into the parking lot, the suspect pulled out the gun and pointed it at her car, which stopped before she sped off.

Johnson then got in the car waiting for him, which started to drive off.

Seconds later, Wehner came out of the gun shop armed with a gun for protection.

“The Uber driver is screaming at him. I’m yelling at him at this point, then they both speed off,” Wehner said.

Though Johnson was taken into custody a short time later, there are still a number of unanswered questions, starting with why he decided to point a gun at a stranger in the parking lot of the gun shop. We can also ask why Johnson was allowed out on a fairly low bond given the seriousness of the charges filed against him, and yeah, I’m also curious about his ammo purchase when he was wearing an ankle monitor. Did the store’s employees not see the electronic device, or did they ignore it? 

The most troubling question, though, is why the same judge who originally set Johnson’s bond on the aggravated assault charges at $60,000 decided to go even easier on the young man after his alleged activity outside Watchdog Tactical. According to WSOC-TV, Judge Judge Fritz Mercer set Johnson’s most recent bond at just $2,500. 

As Wehner told WSOC-TV, “the fact that somebody that attempted to kill five people was allowed back out, I mean it blows your mind. It makes you question if any of us are safe in this city right now.”  

With Johnson still behind bars as of Wednesday, the city might be a little safer than it was last weekend, but the problems go deeper than one suspected violent criminal or even one soft-on-crime judge. Charlotte residents also have to contend with a county sheriff who seems to be intent on depriving as many people as possible from exercising their right to bear arms, adding injury to the insulting nature of the city’s dysfunctional criminal justice system. 

Charlotte’s a beautiful city, but the ugly truth is that it’s not a particularly inviting place for lawful gun owners. Violent criminals, on the other hand, seem to be getting the red-carpet treatment from the local courts.