Lakeland, Florida – On 09/05/2016 the defendant, Harry Johnson and the victim, Terrance Hall were involved in a verbal altercation, which became a physical confrontation. The victim walked away from the defendant to evade the altercation on several occasions. Johnson walked into the Sunoco gas station and told the clerks behind the counter he was going to kill Hall. Then Johnson ran outside of the Sunoco gas station approached the victim, while the victim was speaking to another person. Johnson brandished a knife at Hall who attempted to run away from the Johnson. The chase went across the Sunoco parking lot. Johnson cut the victim on the left side of Hall’s abdomen as the he was running. Hall fell to the ground by the diesel pumps of the Sunoco gas station. Johnson stood over the victim and raised the knife as to stab the victim again. A witness, Carl Tankersley ran over and got between Hall and Johnson to stop him from stabbing the victim again. Tankerskey used his bicycle as a barrier between the victim and defendant. Another witness, Peter Delavay ran to help the Hall and hold pressure on the abdomen wound. This incident was captured on the surveillance video
of the Sunoco gas station.
Law enforcement arrived and located the defendant, Harry Johnson in front of the Rent King which is located at 2610 Highway 92 East in Lakeland, Florida. The defendant made spontaneous statements upon law enforcement’s arrival such as: “Put the handcuffs on
me.” The defendant originally told responding deputies that he dropped the knife in front of the McDonald’s located at 2606 US Highway 92 East in Lakeland, Florida. However, the defendant later gave consent to search his luggage to Deputy Sheriff Griffin,6202
and the knife used to cut the victim, Terrance Hall was located in the defendant’s luggage. The knife still had dried blood on it. The defendant was secured in a marked patrol car, then was transported to the Southwest District Command Center. The defendant
made spontaneous statements to Deputy Sheriff Smith, 8093 while he was transporting the defendant to the Southwest District Command Center such as: “I got angry, walked over there, and cut his ass.”
The victim was not in possession of any weapons when he was transported to the Lakeland Regional
Medical Center.
After obtaining the defendant, Harry Johnson’s full taped confession, the defendant was transported to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office bookin facility without incident.
