BETHEL ISLAND — Gary Johnson Jr. was at the D’Anna Bethel Island Resort Marina showing off his boat to a prospective buyer when he heard an angry remark about something looking amiss. The next thing he knew, he’d been shot, he’d later tell police from a hospital bed.

The bullet struck Johnson in the neck on the afternoon of Oct. 8, 2020, but it didn’t kill him right away. He’d survive for another three years, paralyzed from the neck down, until succumbing from his injuries in 2023.

The suspected shooter, Charles “Chucky” Whitlatch, was well known to police, it turned out. A Contra Costa Sheriff’s deputy who patrolled the area knew him by his blue and white houseboat, adorned with skull decals. But after the shooting, he allegedly fled to Idaho, where he was arrested on attempted murder c

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