Temeka Johnson Murray could not stop anointing her son with blessed olive oil to try to keep him safe from the streets.
Straight from the church altar, she would deposit droplets of the oil on Dominique Johnson-Murray’s pillow, shoes, doorknob, and forehead. Although Dom became a Muslim later in life, mom would surreptitiously slip him holy water when she went over his house to drop off groceries.
“That’s my heart, my youngest. That’s my baby,” Temeka said. “He was my twin. He looked just like me.”
On March 31, 2022 at around 10:30 p.m., Dominique was standing outside his apartment building on the 8400 block of Forrest Avenue in the Cedarbrook section of Philadelphia when he was fatally shot in the head and torso. No arrests have been made, but a weapon was recovered at the time, according to news reports.
Dominique had moved to the one-bedroom apartment less than three months prior, and piled his three sons (Tatum, 3; Armon, 3; and Kayden, 2) in his bed so that they could sleep surrounded by love. His children were his proudest accomplishment, and he enjoyed taking them to Florida, Sesame Place and to football games. But he also savored the small moments, such as getting them ready for school.
“He loved being a dad. He never had any doubts,” said his good friend, Nikole Smith.
Nikole met Dominique when they were students at Eisenhower Middle School in Norristown. They bonded instantly, finding the fun or joke in anything. As they grew older, Dominique would come over Nikole’s house in Drexel Hill while she was working and distract her. He blasted slow jams, singing along until she ordered him to put on headphones.
For a time, the two stopped talking and Dominique persuaded a mutual friend to arrange three-way calls with him and Nikole so that he could tell her he much he missed her and needed her.
“That’s literally my brother,” Nikole said. “You couldn’t tell me any different.”
“He was literally like my bodyguard and my teddy bear at the same time,” added Mydia Simpson, another one of Dominique’s friends since middle school.
Born on September 25, 1991, Dominique was known for his braids, his sports and his protective nature.
Temeka recalled being horrified after discovering a dead mouse while cleaning the house one day. Unprompted, three-year-old Dominique grabbed a bag, picked up the mouse and deposited it in the trash. Then he hugged his mom.
His favorite toys were a little basketball and football, cradled in each arm. At one point, Dominique was on three basketball teams at the same time; he also won 24 mini basketballs, lined up in his bedroom, from dunking hoops in a game at Wildwood.
“He liked the competitive part because he always wanted to win, win, win,” Temeka remembered.
Dominique was also a talented football lineman, alternating between offense and defense at his coach’s request. He played football all afternoon with his younger cousin, Corey Clement, who is now a running back for the Baltimore Ravens. Like his father, Christopher Murray, Dominique was a devoted Eagles fan. Dominique’s son, Kayden, still prefers watching football to Nickelodeon.
Dominique and his older brother, Wesley Carter Jr., occupied “different worlds,” Temeka said, but they supported each other wholeheartedly. Wesley graduated from college and pursued a career as a teacher, while Dominique graduated from Hope Charter School and took a series of jobs as a meat slicer, trash hauler and warehouse worker. More recently, he talked about investing in real estate to help his children achieve long-term financial stability.
He rapped under the name Dom Roc, with dark lyrics and aggressive beats, and felt particularly distraught after the death of his grandparents. Dominique expressed regret for being sent to prison repeatedly over a decade, and called his mom every day from jail. He knew that he was disappointing his loved ones but he felt caught up in the “inevitable,” his friends said.
“If he didn’t want to hear it from me, he didn’t call until he was ready to hear it,” Nikole remembered.
After his children were born, Dominique demonstrated a growing sense of responsibility and maturity. He was openly affectionate with his sons and cooked them hot dogs and Oodles of Noodles — acknowledging that he lacked the culinary chops of his mother, a former restaurateur. Dominique’s favorite night out was all-you-can-eat shrimp at Red Lobster.
“You can tell he was raised on love because he poured it into anyone he cared about,” recalled Mydia.
Two weeks before Dominique was killed, he came to Temeka’s house complaining of a toothache. He lay on top of her on the couch and drifted off to sleep.
Dominique is buried in Rosedale Memorial Park in Bensalem. A tattoo on his neck reads “family.”
Temeka, who lost her mother, father, brother, sister and son in the past two years, said Dominique was supposed to give her away at her wedding last June. Before her son died, he made her promise to watch out for his kids.
“Promise me that if something happens to them…promise me that you won’t let them go into the streets,” he insisted.
“These streets don’t love nobody.”
A reward of up to $20,000 if available to anyone that comes forward with information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for Dominique Johnson-Murray’s murder. Anonymous calls can be submitted by calling the Citizens Crime Commission at 215-546-TIPS. Information can also be submitted to the Philadelphia Police Department online or by calling 215-686-TIPS.
Resources are available for people and communities that have endured gun violence in Philadelphia. Click here for more information.
