Daniel Johnson’s brief life ended on an emergency room operating table, where his 50-year-old body, ravaged by bullets, gave out in the early Monday morning hours.
Tyree Ogsbury-Jones and Aaron Williams, former Fort Lewis College football players, were arrested on suspicion of murder after Ogsbury-Jones shot Johnson twice, and his roommate, Brian Moore, four times, at the Iron Horse Inn, according to Durango police and family statements. Police said the shooting appeared to be motivated by Ogsbury-Jones’ anger with Moore, who survived the attack, over marijuana plants.
Johnson was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The value of Johnson’s life and the tragedy of his death equally were vivid Thursday in Room 156 of the Iron Horse Inn, as his children – 24-year-old twins – collected his personal belongings from the small apartment where he was shot and where he lived with Moore.
Near the door were the unassuming objects that shape a life’s daily meaning: large boots, chewing tobacco, a bicycle and Johnson’s Bible.
But the violence that extinguished Johnson’s life was visible, too. The bathroom remained drenched in drying blood – Moore’s – with some spilling onto the tiles.
“Don’t go back there,” said Megan Moore, who struggled to maneuver in the tiny apartment, which had been upended by crime scene investigators.
Megan is Johnson’s daughter. She is not related to Brian Moore. She said she was grateful to whomever had cleaned up her father’s blood.
“I couldn’t take that. He died, right here,” she said, pointing down at the spot of recently cleaned green carpet she was standing on.
Moore said she couldn’t fathom why her father had been killed.
“He had no money; he was sleeping,” she said.
“Why would they attack him? I don’t know why,” she said, sobbing.
“My dad wasn’t perfect. But he was innocent,” she said.
Shilo Wilson, her twin brother, held her, saying, “there was just no reason.”
Attempts to reach Brian Moore were not successful. But Megan Moore said she has spoken with him since he was released from Mercy Regional Medical Center on Monday.
“He told me my father died a hero. He said the only reason he survived was because my dad saved his life.”
She said her father “was always the guy to stand up for the little guy, even when he had not much for himself.”
She said her father’s journey had been hard but full of love, optimism and honor.
For 20 years, Johnson ran his own plumbing company, Dan Johnson Installations, until he suffered a pinched nerve.
“He couldn’t even pick up my 4-year-old daughter,” Megan Moore said.
After the disability and loss of his business, he struggled with alcoholism, until he went to rehab in Denver two years ago.
Sober, he moved to Durango, where he got a job working for the Shell Gas Station on Camino del Rio – where Brian Moore and Ogsbury-Jones also worked.
“He’s been single for over 15 years. He used to be a drunk. But he got clean, and he was trying to build a life for himself,” his daughter said.
She showed photo after photo of him, mustachioed and grinning with her two young children.
Wilson said his father was “loyal, courageous, honest, strong and caring.”
Megan Moore said she sometimes helped him with money, a fact that embarrassed him.
“He was saving to get his own trailer in three weeks – to get his own house, his own life. He didn’t want his daughter to be burdened.”
He didn’t like TV much, but he loved Lynyrd Skynyrd, video games and, recently, religion.
“For the last few months, he was posting Bible verses all the time. So hopefully, he’s in heaven,” Megan Moore said.
cmcallister@durangoherald.com
