An NYC criminal justice activist facing charges over a headless torso found inside a Bronx apartment has been seen in surveillance footage wearing blonde wigs and transporting a large plastic box from the crime scene, reports say.
Sheldon Johnson, 48, was detained Thursday in relation to a dismembered body found in a blue bin and a head stashed in a freezer inside the Bronx apartment found two days prior.
Neighbors allegedly told investigators they heard a victim pleading for his life before two shots were heard from the apartment, sources told the New York Post.
The victim was named Thursday as Colin Small, 44, as Johnson was charged with murder, manslaughter, and weapon possession.
Before the grisly discovery, Johnson was spotted chilling surveillance images appearing to disguise himself in a blonde wig and transporting large boxes and trash bags.
On the night of the alleged murder, the suspect was seen wearing a blonde wig in the apartment building, potentially as a disguise
Sheldon Johnson, 48, was detained Thursday in relation to a dismembered body found in a Bronx apartment two days prior
The building’s super said that he was seen entering the apartment with a large blue bin, but never left with it. It was later reported that the torso was found in a blue bin
Johnson was seen transporting a large number of bags to and from the apartment, and the building’s super speculated that he was ‘hiding something’
Johnson, pictured being perp-walked from the NYPD 44th Precinct on Thursday, where he yelled, ‘I’m innocent!’ to reporters as he was led away in white overalls
Johnson was seen being perp-walked from the NYPD 44th Precinct on Thursday, where he yelled, ‘I’m innocent!’ to reporters as he was led away in white overalls.
Police descended on the apartment Tuesday following reports from concerned neighbors over shots heard within the building.
They reportedly told police making the wellness check that they subsequently saw a stranger coming and going from the apartment with cleaning supplies.
Fears were also sparked by the alleged pleading from the victim, who was heard screaming, ‘Please don’t… I have a family.’
The building’s superintendent told the Post that he told NYPD officers he became concerned by the stranger’s presence, particularly as they were not the tenant that he knew.
He claimed that the suspect carried a blue bin, seen in surveillance footage, into the apartment at around 2am after the shots were heard, but wasn’t seen bringing it back.
‘He brought in the bin … I told them, ‘Why is he bringing in the bin at 2 o’clock in the morning? He’s bringing in a bin so late,’ the super said.
‘We tried to see if he took out the bin. He never took out the bin. I told them, ‘Look for a bin.’ And sure enough, it was there.’
In a strange development, the building’s super also claimed he saw the suspect leaving the scene in the victim’s blue Audi, before returning wearing a blonde wig.
They felt that he was trying to disguise himself, saying he was ‘dressing differently, changing his character… that’s not normal, he is hiding something.’
Johnson is a well-known criminal justice activist in New York City, and had recently appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast to speak about how he turned his life around
Neighbors claimed they heard a victim screaming for help through the walls, pleading with the alleged killer: ‘Please don’t… I have a family’
Evidence bags seen piled up outside the crime scene on Thursday, two days after cops made the grisly discovery
However, he said the officers initially declined to take the suspect into custody when they made their check, and even apologized to him.
‘The guy stood there,’ he claimed.
‘They took him out and everything. They looked in the apartment, but they didn’t find anything. They apologized, said somebody called, and they have to come.’
The super said that when the cops left, Johnson asked to speak with him privately – but the detectives returned and arrested Johnson before he they could speak.
‘If I’d gone, you never know what he was going to do,’ he said. ‘He was gonna frame me or shoot me or offer me something to get rid of the cameras or something.’
A neighbor described Johnson as ‘quiet’ and a ‘loner’, and said he saw the suspect walking small dogs days before the murder.
‘It feels like the devil just crawled through here last night,’ the tenant, Jose Marquez, said.
‘Sometimes we get fooled with the appearance — well dressed … he looks clean,’ Marquez said.
‘You are assuming this guy has a professional career — went to work, came back, walked the dog and continued with his personal life.’
Johnson is a well-known criminal justice activist in New York City, and had recently appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast to speak about how he turned his life around.
He served 20 years in prison for a series of armed robberies in 1999, and upon his release from prison in 2019 began working as a client advocate at the public defender’s office in Queens.
