San Francisco police arrested Gregory C. Morton yesterday as a suspect in the March killing of 24-year-old Tertron Johnson at a block party in Sunnydale.
Court filings indicate that a man with the same age and name as the suspect was previously charged with first-degree murder for the 2015 shooting of two teenagers sitting in the parking lot of Crocker Amazon Park.
Morton, 32, was found by San Francisco’s Violence Reduction Team, a special police investigative unit, in Oakland on Aug. 8. Police officers followed him back to San Francisco before apprehended him and booking him into jail four days later on a murder charge, according to San Francisco’s jail booking log. He is currently being held without bail.
Johnson, the victim in the Sunnydale killing, was shot at approximately 10:43 p.m. on March 24 at a party held at a former public housing project. According to videos and photos posted to social media, Johnson and his friends were filming a hip-hop music video hours before Johnson was killed.
Paramedics arrived after receiving a 911 call and transported Johnson to a nearby hospital, where he died of his injuries.
In 2015, a man identified as Gregory Charles Morton and an accomplice, Davante Robinson, both 21 at the time, were arrested for the killing of Kenyatta Butler Jr., 18, and Donzel Gaines, 19. At the time, Morton and Robinson worked doing maintenance for the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department.
Morton later entered a plea agreement in 2021 under District Attorney Chesa Boudin, and was released because he had already served six years pre-trial.
In 2020, Boudin issued a policy directive that ended the use of gang enhancements, a sentencing add-on that extended time served for defendants accused of being involved in gang activity. Boudin argued that gang enhancements unfairly targeted Black and Brown youth, and led to racial disparities in the justice system.
At the time, prosecutors claimed that Morton and Robinson had been involved in a local gang.
Less than a year later, records indicate that Morton was arrested for being found in possession of a gun while on supervised release.
The San Francisco Police Department did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.
On social media, friends and family remembered Johnson, who went by the nickname “Troop,” as a lover of music, who often posted videos of himself lip-synching in his car.
“This loss is devastating, especially since we have seen a decline in homicides within the last few years,” said Supervisor Shamann Walton, who represents the neighborhood, in March. “Losing someone in community to senseless violence is tragic.”
Homicides are up under Lurie’s leadership but he campaigned on “improving public safety”. He needs to do more to address rising gun violence. This is a horrible situation
Chesa Boudin is still killing us.