As Kentucky police investigate the fatal shooting of a pregnant woman, the victimâs newborn baby is fighting for her life.
Geri Johnson, 29, was pronounced dead at a Corbin hospital on Saturday evening, sometime after her boyfriend brought her to the ERâand after doctors delivered her baby girl. Kentucky State Police have released few details and havenât named any suspects in the disturbing case, which as of Monday was classified as a âdeath investigation.â
Baptist Health Hospital staff alerted cops to Johnsonâs gunshot wound. Itâs unclear how many times or where Johnson was shot, or when and where the incident took place. Her baby, named Amelia Jo, was delivered at 7 months and transported to University of Kentucky Medical Center Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Lexington.
Trooper Lloyd Cochran of the Kentucky State Police declined to comment on whether Johnsonâs boyfriend was involved in her death. âWeâre just trying to get to the bottom of it right now,â Cochran told The Daily Beast.
An autopsy of Johnsonâs body was scheduled on Sunday and the results are pending, authorities said.
According to one Lex18 report, the shooting occurred outside a home on Steele Hollow Road in rural Whitley County, and Johnsonâs boyfriend drove her to the hospital.
Friends took to social media to mourn the mother-to-be, who also went by Geri Bays, and to support Johnsonâs mother, Sandra, who is a nurse.
âGeri was a great person,â one family friend, Theresa Jarvis, told The Daily Beast. âIf you were having a bad day, she was the type of person that could make you laugh. She was very humorous, sweet and had a good heart.â
Johnson, who had three boys from a previous marriage, was âecstaticâ about having her first baby girl, friends told The Daily Beast.
Still, life wasnât always easy for Johnson. One friend, Codi Marie Woolever, met her at Whitley County Detention Center in 2015 and said she was âone of a kind.â
At the time, Woolever was a detention officer, and Johnson a prisoner. (A review of public records and local newspaper articles shows arrests for trafficking methamphetamine and failure to appear in court.)
âShe had a smile that would brighten anyoneâs day. So contagious, so beautiful,â Woolever told The Daily Beast.
âI got to know Geri on a sober level. She loved her family and her children like no other. She was a very bubbly people person. I donât remember one person that met Geri that didnât have something good to say about her,â Woolever added.
Woolever joined countless friends of Johnsonâs family in praying for her baby, who is in critical condition.
âI donât see what she could have done [that was] so bad for someone to kill her while she was pregnant,â Woolever said of Johnson.
Tasha Satterfield, a classmate of Johnsonâs from elementary to high school, was shocked to hear of Johnsonâs death. Johnson was outgoing and full of laughter, Satterfield said. âShe always enjoyed life,â the friend added.
âEverybody that knew her, could never say anything bad about her.â
âShe was a big part of a lot of peopleâs lives. When somebody was down and out and needed somebody to talk to, she was always there,â Satterfield told The Daily Beast. âShe would cheer you up no matter how down you was on anything.â
Amanda Campbell-Cox said sheâs known Johnson for many years and lived with her at one point. They also did jail time together and both worked on getting sober.
Responding to rumors on social media, Campbell-Cox said she doesnât believe Johnson would hurt herself or shoot herself.
âShe still had her issues but she was a great person. She was funny and she was easy to get along with,â Campbell-Cox said. âShe wanted to do good, she wanted to show her mom and them that she could be a different person than what she was.â
âWhen we were in jail, all she talked about was her mom and her kids all the time,â Campbell-Cox said, adding, âShe wanted to get back with her kids more than anything. She just wanted to be a mom again.â