PHOENIX — 12News is learning more about what prompted an Arizona man to livestream himself choking out an Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) case worker, nearly killing him. De'Andre Johnson's aunt, Lisa Welch, said it all centers around a closed-door meeting the case worker had with his nine-year-old daughter.
12News first showed you the startling video Wednesday night. It shows Johnson having a lengthy conversation with a DCS case worker at a DCS office in Mesa on Tuesday near Alma School Road and Southern. As the DCS worker walks away, Johnson wraps his arms around his neck and chokes him for several minutes.
After the violent assault, Johnson can be heard saying on the live stream, "Anybody else think it’s okay to take little girls into a room?"
At her Valley apartment, Welch declined an on-camera interview with 12News. However, she spoke about a closed-door meeting the DCS worker had with Johnson's nine-year-old daughter days before the assault. She said the meeting happened at his daughter's school and added that Johnson wasn't aware of the meeting until his daughter told him about it.
Johnson took to Facebook one day before the attack to express his frustration over the alleged meeting with his daughter.
“You damn right I'm mad. You damn right. I'm mad," he said in the recorded video. "How much more information you need? Somebody that didn't work at the school took a nine-year-old girl into a room and there ain't no video or audio recording. What more information you need? You don't know right from wrong?”
12News reached out to DCS to ask if the meeting happening and why. A spokesperson said they could not comment because of confidentiality laws.
This incident is not Johnson's first run-in with the law. Back in 2017, court documents say he violently assaulted a man he didn't know. According to Tempe Police, Johnson threw the victim to the ground, kicked him, and stomped on the back of his head until he lost consciousness.
Court documents say Johnson was smiling while he continued to stomp on the back of the victim's head. At trial, the victim testified that he was hospitalized for a week with a brain bleed and injuries to his face.
Johnson was charged with felony aggravated assault and possession of marijuana. He was convicted by a jury of his peers on both charges and was sentenced to nearly a year in jail and four years on probation after his release.
In a statement on the attack of their case worker, a DCS spokesperson released the following statement to 12News:
"Yesterday one of our specialists was assaulted in an unprovoked and horrific manner by a parent at our Tempe/Gilbert field office. This disturbing event occurred in the public lobby of the building, and although no weapon was used, the attack was severe enough that our specialist had to be taken by ambulance for medical treatment. Several witnesses were present, and the perpetrator has since been arrested. We are relieved that the specialist has been discharged from the hospital and is now at home recovering with family.
Our staff constantly perform difficult work under challenging circumstances, and they do so with the goal of strengthening families and ensuring Arizona children can thrive. The Department is committed to keeping our staff safe as they carry out this essential work, and we are conducting a comprehensive review of this incident in an effort to prevent it from happening again."
Johnson has been charged with attempted murder and remains in jail on a $500,000 cash bond.
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