Use of Makeup May Have Sparked Slaying, Family Says

Naima Melody Johnson removed her traditional Muslim headdress and put on makeup last weekend to serve as maid of honor at a friend’s wedding. A day later, she was shot in the face and killed.

Officials said Thursday they charged her boyfriend with murder. And Johnson’s family says the boyfriend, Kenneth Earl Tyson Jr., may have killed her because he believed that she had violated Muslim tenets.

Tyson, 23, was arrested Wednesday night and charged with shooting Johnson, 20, of Sacramento, a native of the Oakland area who was in town to serve as her best friend’s maid of honor.

Johnson’s family said she wore makeup and removed her kamar, a traditional Muslim headdress, during the wedding. The family members said that may have set off Tyson, who they said strictly follows the codes of Islam.

According to the Islamic faith, women are encouraged to dress modestly, though that concept is interpreted differently by different people.

Police have not released a motive for the killing.

“It’s very sad,” said Police Lt. Judie Pursell. “We’re still doing the investigation. We don’t know what we’re going to find.”

Johnson, the youngest of six children, had known Tyson since high school. Family members said that Johnson met Tyson at a party and that he introduced her to Islam.

She was found dead in her mother’s home the day after the wedding, shot several times in the face.

“My sister was a bright light to us all. Though her life has been taken, she will always be remembered as a positive force within us,” Diana Montemayor of Oakland, an older sister, said in a statement. “We are devastated at the loss of beauty and kindness that her soul gave to this world.”

Tyson previously was convicted of possession and brandishing of a firearm, Pursell said. No date has been set for his arraignment. He is being held without bail.