Minnesota inmate accused in guard's death has violent past

The man suspected of killing a guard at the state's prison in Stillwater this week has a long and troubled personal history, both inside and outside the penitentiary walls.

Edward Muhammad Johnson, 42, is serving a 29-year sentence for the 2002 stabbing death of a woman he was living with. As a child in Chicago a decade and a half prior, Johnson witnessed the killing of his mother by his father.

Minnesota Corrections Commissioner Tom Roy said staff are struggling to comprehend the death of Officer Joseph Gomm. His was the first line-of-duty death in the state prison system's history.

The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Thursday night that Gomm died of blunt force trauma in an industrial building on the prison grounds, and that Johnson is the sole suspect.

At a news conference Thursday, Roy again declined to discuss details of the attack Wednesday afternoon, citing an open investigation. But he did say Johnson has had many behavior problems throughout the 15 years he's been incarcerated.

"The discipline record of this individual is significant. He has served about 1,700 days in segregation at different stages," Roy said.

Just before he went to prison for the 2002 stabbing death of Brooke Elizabeth Thompson at their home in Bloomington, Johnson pleaded guilty to assaulting a guard at the Hennepin County Jail.

Once in prison, he racked up a lengthy list of infractions, mostly for fighting. Fourteen years to the day before he allegedly killed Gomm, Johnson lost an eye when another inmate stabbed him inside Stillwater's disciplinary segregation unit. Johnson filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in 2008, alleging prison guards failed to protect him.

Johnson lost that lawsuit, but in 2009, his attorney says Johnson won a $300,000 personal injury judgment in Washington County court. He wouldn't hang onto the money long. The next year, Thompson's family was granted most of Johnson's assets in a wrongful death suit.

According to court documents, Thompson's 5-year-old daughter saw her mother and Johnson fighting the day before Bloomington police found Thompson's body. That incident in 2002 has echoes of a similar tragedy Johnson himself witnessed as a child in Chicago.

In 1988 — when he was 12 — Johnson and his younger sister saw their father, Edward Johnson Sr., fatally shoot their mother, Selena, before fleeing and killing himself later in the day. Both parents were police officers.

Longtime criminal justice reporter Steve Bogira wrote about the case for the Chicago Reader in 1989 for a story about domestic violence among city police, and the lack of a response by department leaders.

"One of the things that I'll never forget is the fact that Ed didn't just choose to kill Selena, but he did it in front of his kids," Bogira said.

Bogira has chronicled many violent crimes over his career, and said the murder of Thompson at the hands of the younger Johnson was sadly predictable: "Violence in the home is a factor in the childhoods of so many defendants who I've seen."

Washington County Attorney Pete Orput said he'll file charges as soon as the BCA completes its investigation.

"Not only officer Gomm's family, but the entire Department of Corrections family, these folks have been through a really devastating incident," Orput said. "All I can bring is an aggressive prosecution, and I'm bringing it."

With both the Stillwater and Oak Park Heights prisons in his district, Orput has prosecuted 150 offenders for assaults inside the walls. In all cases, Orput has sought consecutive sentences.

He has not decided whether to seek first-degree murder charges in Gomm's death. Such a conviction would mean Johnson would never leave prison.