Canton, Michigan – An unarmed White father-of-two was “senselessly” shot dead after reports say a Black man was upset over a petty lawn dispute. For the crime, police arrested a sex offender who barricaded himself in his own home before surrendering.
According to reports, the incident occurred on Saturday, when 35-year-old Nathan Morris—a Ford engineer and secretary of the 6th Congressional District’s Republican Committee—was walking around the neighbourhood with his family.
That’s when the suspect, 47-year-old Devereaux Christopher Johnson, became angry after he allegedly witnessed Morris’ daughter touch a pile of mulch in his yard. Morris was then said to have sent his family home to de-escalate the situation with Johnson—who is Black.
For his efforts, police asserted that Morris was then shot multiple times by Johnson in broad daylight and left to bleed in the street.
By the time Morris had been transported to a local hospital, he was dead, reports say. Officers with the Canton Police Department then began a heated stand-off outside Johnson’s house, where he barricaded himself with a firearm. He later surrendered to police without incident and remains in custody.
At a court hearing on Monday, Johnson was officially charged with multiple felonies, including first-degree murder, and charges related to the unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. It is currently unknown if hate crime charges are being considered in the case, but the Justice Report will continue to provide updates as they become available.
Like many Black men arrested for serious violent crimes, Johnson had a long history of run-ins with law enforcement. According to reports, the 6’4″, 260lb Devereaux Christopher Johnson was once convicted of the violent rape of a teenager in Nevada in 2005.
The crime would result in his clean-shaven face appearing on numerous online sex offender registries, including Michigan and Illinois.
Just last year, Johnson was charged with misdemeanour assault and battery and for the assault of a police officer, a felony. While the more serious charge was dropped by area prosecutors, Johnson ultimately pled guilty to assault and battery and was sentenced to only a year of probation, which was dropped in July of 2024.
Neighbours of both Johnson and Morris claimed the suspect was a regular nuisance in the area and known for sparking random arguments. One neighbour alleged that Johnson could have been the source of a series of gunshots that flew into the window of his home.
Another neighbour, identified as Nicole Brooks, said that she believed Johnson had a history of “mental health issues” prior to the gunshot murder. A spokeswoman for the RNC National Committee, Hima Kolanagireddy, remembered Morris as a beloved father and referred to his tragic killing as a “senseless” act committed by a neighbourhood “menace.”
“(Morris) was an engineer at Ford Motors and got involved in politics when Ford mandated COVID-19 vaccines,” said Kolanagireddy. “Nate was a great Dad and good man…Even in his final act as a dad he was protecting his children by sending them home while he tried to defuse the situation.”
“It’s just an unbelievable tragedy,” Kolanagireddy said. “I just want neighbours to be supportive of the family. I cannot even imagine what they’re going through right now.”
In life, the young father of two was heavily engaged in local politics and an advocate for his community. In addition to working for the Republican Party, he once ran for a spot on the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools Board of Education.
He is survived by his wife, Becky, and two children, Molly and Zoey. As of press time, a GiveSendGo set up to assist the family during these unthinkable times has already raised $22,000 of its original $25,000 goal.
“Mr. Nathan Morris was a family man first and foremost. He will be missed by the hundreds of people who knew him, loved him, and enjoyed his can-do spirit and a strong focus on the work and responsibilities, which he took on at the cost of precious family time, especially reading to his children at bedtime,” read the online fundraiser.
The gunshot murder of Nathan Morris over what amounts to a child touching a Black man’s lawn closely mirrors the 2023 story of 6-year-old Kinsley White and her father, Jamie. The pair were shot by a Black neighbour in Gastonia, North Carolina after a basketball inadvertently rolled into the yard of 24-year-old Robert Louis Singletary. Unlike the shooting in Canton, however, both Jamie and his young daughter survived the attack.
The Justice Report’s exclusive interview with Mr. White revealed that he and his daughter had been targeted for their race in the shooting, with Singletary allegedly stating, “I don’t like White people” prior to opening fire.
According to the latest US Census Reports, Canton serves as one of the few remaining White enclaves in Wayne County, Michigan, currently sitting at 61.14% White alone. However, its close proximity to the ever-violent and unliveable 77.17% Black Detroit means shootings, gang criminality, and death can sometimes even strike at the heart of perceived “safe” neighbourhoods miles away.
The White-Papers Policy Institute (WPPI), which tracks the racial replacement of White Americans and its often gruesome consequences, asserts that systemically anti-White governance policies are to blame for transforming certain areas of Michigan into a racial warzone.
Under the rule of controversial governor Gretchen Whitmer, healthcare workers in Michigan are now subjected to special training programs that indoctrinate them to the anti-White “teachings” of authors such as Robin DiAngelo, Kimberle Crenshaw, and Ta-Nehisi Coates. The program reportedly covers the topics of systemic racism, lynching, the so-called “holocaust,” and the race riots of the 1960s.
WPPI asserts that the program is just one of many policies “explicitly designed to push guilt and blame” the White community, which could ostensibly greenlight violence against White Americans and their families.
The murder of Nathan Morris comes as American Institutions continue their incessant drumbeat of “White supremacy” and “far-right extremism” as the greatest threat to national security. Meanwhile, Black Americans are regularly implicated in an ever-growing list of abhorrent crimes, which include Whites of all ages and backgrounds as hapless victims from coast to coast.
In Atlantic City, New Jersey, three Black men were arrested for their alleged role in the gunshot murder of a White woman on the beach outside a resort hotel. The victim, 32-year-old Carley Elbert, was an aspiring actress and singer who had just begun to recover from a near-fatal bout with a life-long illness.
In June, a well-respected youth counsellor in Irma, Wisconsin, was brutally beaten to death by what authorities state was a Black 16-year-old serving time in a juvenile correction facility. The victim, identified as 49-year-old Corey Proulx, reportedly fell limp from the assault, cracking his head on the concrete, with the suspect admitting he did it due to a “built-up aggression” he had toward a different employee.
In February, a suspected Black paedophile was responsible for a mass shooting that claimed the lives of three White first responders in Burnsville, Minnesota.
The victims, identified as Adam Finseth, Matthew Ruge, and Paul Elmstrand, were shot amid a prolonged SWAT standoff with 38-year-old Shannon Cortez Gooden, a convicted felon barred from owning firearms once filmed admitting to “envisioning White people” as he practiced shooting at a gun range.
This article originally appeared on the Justice Report and is republished by The Noticer with permission.
