‘You could’ve stopped’: Family looking for answers after teen killed in hit-and-run on Christmas Eve

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT/Gray News) - A family is grieving the loss of their 17-year-old loved one after he was hit by a car and killed on Christmas Eve in Jackson.

In the early hours of Christmas Eve, 17-year-old Logan Johnson was going hunting with two of his best friends, his family said.

“He was with two of his friends and the car ran out of gas. They put gas in the car. Then he and one of his friends got behind it and pushed it because it wouldn’t start,” Logan’s uncle Sidney Courtney said.

Logan’s family said the hit-and-run happened around 4 a.m., near the intersection of Interstate 55 North Frontage Road and Adkins Boulevard.

“A white Dodge Charger came flying down the road before he could get out of the way and hit him,” Courtney explained. “You can see tire marks where the Charger saw that they were going to hit somebody and tried to stop but then they just ... killed him and left.”

Johnson’s friends tried to perform CPR until emergency crews arrived, but it was too late.

“We lost a family member that wasn’t there for Christmas while this person was still laughing and playing and enjoying their life ... knowing that they just killed somebody,” Courtney said.

Courtney says his nephew was unlike any teenager and had a bright future planned out for himself.

“From the time he was born, he always wanted to smile, play, have fun, wanted everybody around him to just be happy all the time,” he said. “He wanted to be a Marine. I used to send him Marine Corps stuff while I was in. So, he had a room full of just Marine Corps stuff and that was his dream. That was his goal.”

That future was taken away. In a letter from Johnson’s mother Kayla, she pleads for just one thing.

“You could’ve stopped and stayed with him. I just asked that you please come forward and turn yourself in [to] the police. I will never be able to hug hold or watch my son grow into a man because of this tragic accident,” Johnson’s mother wrote.

According to the family, Jackson police are currently investigating and working to get surveillance video from the businesses in the area.

Anyone with information that could assist investigators is asked to contact the Jackson Police Department or Crime Stoppers.

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