ATLANTA — One of the 14 people killed in the San Bernardino shootings Wednesday grew up in Georgia and was planning to get married in February.
According to the Macon Telegraph, Shannon Johnson graduated in 1988 from Windsor Academy in Macon, attended Cal State, was an environmental health specialist in San Bernardino and had recently proposed to his girlfriend.
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He died, according to a relative of one of the survivors, saving someone else.
"This angel of a man was sitting next to my sister when the shooting happened," Stephanie Rose Baldwin wrote Friday in a Facebook post. "He helped protect her from the bullets and we are so grateful for his heroic love, that most likely saved her life."
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Ken Smith Jr., who played football and baseball with Johnson at Windsor Academy, told the Telegraph he was not surprised by his longtime friend’s heroism.
“That’s just him," said Smith, now a teacher at Georgia College & State University. "He was a great, loving guy that would take his shirt off his back to help somebody."
Smith told the Telegraph, he wasn't too worried when he first heard the news of the shooting since San Bernardino is one of the largest counties in the nation.
"You kind of go through that denial," Smith said.
After learning an environmental scientist was among the victims, the uneasiness began. His fears were confirmed with a phone call.
Others who knew Johnson say the news has shocked the small school community.
"That just makes you know that the world is so small," Sonya Smith said. "It's unreal. You just don't know from day to day."
- Complete coverage of the San Bernardino shootings on Channel 2 Action News at 5 p.m.