GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — A Gaston County man is facing a murder charge after initially telling police his girlfriend died by suicide, but family members say an autopsy revealed the truth.
Channel 9’s Gaston County reporter Ken Lemon spoke with her mother Wednesday.
The victim’s mother, Laura McCluney, said she thought she would never get close to justice.
McCluney said her daughter, Tamika Johnson, loved her job and adored her three children.
Death by suicide didn’t make sense to McCluney.
McCluney said nothing justifies her daughter’s killing, but she wants to hear Roderick Berry Jr.’s explanation.
“I can’t understand,” she said. “What did she do so bad to cause him to shoot her in the head?”
McCluney said her family never trusted Berry, who she said was an ex-boyfriend who beat Johnson.
McCluney told Lemon the family rescued her daughter from Berry’s home 10 years ago.
The family didn’t know they were seeing each other again.
On Aug. 30, police went to Berry’s apartment on Pembroke Road in Gastonia.
Berry told police that Johnson had she shot herself inside but McCluney said her daughter feared guns.
“I told the detectives, ‘Ain’t no way. She didn’t do this. I know better. She had too much to live for,’” McCluney said.
They arrested Berry on felony gun charges and last week, a grand jury indicted him for murder.
“That just lifted a whole burden off of me because I knew my daughter didn’t do that herself,” McCluney said.
She believes they are one step closer to justice after a long mourning.
They told Johnson’s four-year-old daughter that her mother is in heaven.
Every day, the girl kisses her mom’s picture and asks one question: “Can I call Jesus, because I want to talk to my mommy.”
McCluney said police told her the investigation isn’t over and it may take a couple of years for the case to go to trial.
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