Thug who walked at SF murder trial found with machine gun after high-speed SFPD chase – prosecutors
A violent felon accused of leading SFPD officers on a high-speed chase through San Francisco’s Bayview – ramming a patrol car, crashing into a MUNI bus and running red lights – before leaping from the car with a machine gun in his hand, will appear in court today for a preliminary hearing.
Diante Johnson, a Harbor Road gang member with one of the county’s longest rap sheets, was being sought by police because of an open U.S. Marshals arrest warrant.
Prosecutors say that police endeavored to apprehend Johnson while his Honda was stopped in traffic. One car blocked him from the rear, while other officers deployed a spike strip in front. He reversed into the police car behind him, then drove over the spike strip, then crashed into a bus, then hit another car, before embarking on an escape bid.
“Defendant led officers on a lengthy pursuit through the Bayview district,” wrote assistant district attorney Rebecca Warren in a motion to detain. “During the pursuit, defendant ran numerous stop signs and red lights, and the defendant drove in the wrong direction of traffic multiple times.”
Eventually the Honda lost its tires, Johnson lost control and crashed.
“Defendant got out of the Honda while holding a pistol,” continued Warren. “Officers immediately tackled [him] to the ground and, after a brief struggle, the defendant was arrested.”
The gun was a 9mm Glock 19 equipped with a ‘Glock switch’ to enable automatic fire. Police found cocaine, methamphetamine and a loaded high capacity magazine in the car.
Between the ages of 11 and 16 Johnson received juvenile adjudications for four attempted robberies, battery, and criminal threats. At 19 he was convicted of battery after striking his pregnant girlfriend.
Five months later, in 2007, he led police on a chase that resulted in a crash. In 2008 he was convicted of carrying a concealed firearm and, shortly after this release from jail in 2009, was arrested for the shooting of two men in Hunters Point, one of whom died.
After a San Francisco jury acquitted Johnson of murder and attempted murder arising from that incident – and notwithstanding that both victims including the one who died said it was Johnson who shot them – he was arrested one month later with a loaded 9mm Beretta handgun.
He was convicted in federal court in 2012 for gun possession and served 27 months in prison. He absconded from a halfway house and, while away, attracted the interest of authorities in Contra Costa county for a drug-related murder. U.S. Marshals apprehended him with a .40 caliber Glock equipped with an extended magazine and a laser sight.
He also has a 2023 firearms possession conviction in Solano and a 2023 Contra Costa conviction for ‘evading an officer against traffic’.
Johnson, who is in custody, will appear today for a preliminary hearing at San Francisco’s Hall of Justice. He has pleaded not guilty to 12 felony and three misdemeanor charges arising from the incident.
The case continues.
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