Dad attacks child’s caseworker, livestreams it, AZ officials say. He’s sentenced

A dad is going to prison after being accused of attacking his daughter’s caseworker and livestreaming it on Facebook, Arizona officials said.

On Nov. 5, Mesa officers responded after getting a call about a man, later identified as De’Andre Terrell Johnson of Scottsdale, choking another man in the lobby of a building, McClatchy News previously reported.

Johnson had gotten angry at his daughter’s caseworker after accusing him of interviewing her alone in a room during an investigation, according to a Sept. 5 news release from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.

After the two men talked, the caseworker began walking away and Johnson came up from behind, putting him in a chokehold and telling him he was a “dead man,” prosecutors said.

The caseworker ended up falling unconscious after being choked for over 2 minutes, officers said, and when he fell to the ground, Johnson continued to choke his “limp body” when he realized the man was still breathing.

Throughout the attack, which Johnson livestreamed on Facebook, bystanders tried to stop Johnson, and after he finally let the victim go, he fled the scene before being arrested hours later, prosecutors said.

“It’s not just the violence of this crime, but that he livestreamed it for the world to see, that makes it so alarming,” Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said. “There is no justification for this defendant’s ambush attack on someone who was simply doing his job to protect kids.”

Johnson was charged with attempted murder, disorderly conduct and unlawful flight from law enforcement, officials said.

He was sentenced to 17 ½ years in prison, officials said.

Mesa is about a 20-mile drive southeast from Phoenix.