'He didn't deserve that': Mother of man found shot to death on freeway ramp wants justice

FOX 2 (WJBK) - John Cassidy Williams' body was found shot to death and dumped on the Southfield freeway ramp to I-96 back on January 23rd. His mother is opening up about the kind of person he was, and how proud she was of him.

Korto Johnson is still struggling to understand how her 22-year-old son’s life could have been ended so suddenly by a bullet, allegedly fired by the hand of someone he knew.

"How could you take my only child away from me? That’s all I had! He’s all I had," said Korto Johnson.

The suspect police say pulled the trigger, was Rayquin Desean Patrick.

"With the report saying premeditated. Why? You knew him? That part it just haunts me," she said. "You knew him. He was your friend."

A family member put together a tribute video honoring John’s 22 years on earth.

"I want to be a fighter. I want to be successful but I struggle," Williams says in the video. "There’s so much pressure to be a young Black man."

The video also pays respect to the time Williams served as one of the Few, The Proud, The Marines.

"You know he joined the Marines because he wanted a place to belong you know," Johnson said. "And he would always tell me, 'Once a Marine always a Marine. I’m a Marine always, I’ll always be a Marine.'"

"I just want people to know who he was you know? He was kind. He was a people person. Everyone that met him loved him. He didn’t deserve that."

Police say Williams was found on the ramp from the northbound Southfield Freeway onto I-96 around 3:30 am on Jan. 23.

Investigators say he was shot in a car along the freeway then pushed out on the ramp. Detectives confirm the shooting was not random.

The mother says she saw the suspect once before a few months ago.

Shooting suspect Rayquin Desean Patrick. 

"I’m out of town and I came to Michigan to visit my son’s apartment. This young man was there with my son," she said. "Why? Why would you do that to someone that was so kind to you, you know?"

Johnson says she feels like she's yet to wake up from a horrible dream and still has so many questions left in her mind.

"If anybody knows anything extra about what happened to my son, that could continue to help his case for him to get some justice, please, I’m begging you as a mother, please call the Michigan State Police and give them whatever information you have," she said.