Oshea Israel killed Mary Johnson's son years ago. Now, she's forgiven him and treats him as her own son.
In 1993, Oshea Israel, a teen gang member, got into a fight with Laramium Byrd, a 20-year-old, at a Minneapolis club. Israel shot and killed Byrd, and was sent to prison for nearly two decades.
Now free, Israel’s next-door neighbor is none other than Mary Johnson, Byrd’s mother. It’s no accident: Johnson began communicating with Israel while he was in prison, and they became close.
“I wanted to know if you were in the same mindset of what I remembered from court, where I wanted to go over and hurt you,” Johnson told him on NPR’s StoryCorps. “But you were not that 16-year-old. You were a grown man. I shared with you about my son.”
Remarkably, Johnson was able to forgive Israel for killing her only son. At the end of the meeting, Israel embraced her “like I would my own mother,” he said.
The relationship has allowed Johnson to move forward and help others in similar situations: She co-founded a non-profit support group for mothers who’ve lost children to violence, called From Death to Life: Two Mothers Coming Together for Healing. And while Israel hasn’t fully forgiven himself for his crime, he takes comfort in the knowledge that Johnson loves him like another son.
The fact that Johnson believes in him, “despite how much pain I caused [her]—it’s amazing,” he said. “It motivates me to make sure I stay on the right path.”