Quadajah Johnson was arrested in Des Plaines and charged with first-degree murder in the September shooting death of Romeca Blackmon.
CHICAGO, IL — Months after a young mother was gunned down outside her child’s school in broad daylight, prosecutors have finally charged the woman they say pulled the trigger.
Quadajah “Holly” Johnson, 31, is now facing a first-degree murder charge in the Sept. 8 execution-style killing of 31-year-old Romeca Blackmon near Cermak Road and State Street. Johnson was arrested around noon Wednesday in Des Plaines, according to Chicago police — long after Blackmon’s family says the warning signs were ignored.
Investigators say the two women shared a child with the same man, who was also present at the chaotic scene. In a move that left Blackmon’s loved ones stunned, Johnson was initially detained the day of the shooting — then mysteriously released.
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Minutes before her life was stolen, Blackmon had just kissed her 6-year-old son goodbye and sent him into school, never knowing it would be her last embrace. Her final social media post was heartbreakingly simple: a photo of a handwritten note she tucked into her son’s lunchbox.
Moments later, police scanner audio captured reports of a fight — then a woman with a gun. Blackmon was shot in the face outside the schoolyard.
Now, new details raise troubling questions about whether this deadly encounter had been brewing for months. Records show Johnson had taken out multiple protective orders against Blackmon dating back to December 2024, with another filed just this summer.
But Blackmon’s family believes those filings were never about protection — but about creating a paper trail to shield Johnson before the trigger was ever pulled.
For months, Blackmon’s loved ones demanded answers as the case appeared to stall until Wednesday when Johnson was taken into custody.
No motive has been officially released.
Johnson now sits behind bars, where she will answer for a life taken.
