According to the Orlando Sentinel, a Florida woman who claimed to be Tyre Sampson’s cousin was fired from her job after being exposed as a purported scam artist.
On March 24, Sampson, 14, died after falling from a drop tower ride at Orlando’s ICON Park.
Shay Johnson reportedly showed up at Sampson’s memorial the next day wearing a T-shirt with his picture on the front. According to the Sentinel, she was holding up a sign and spoke to various news outlets as a representative of his family.
“We want justice,” she stated emphatically. She also claimed to have spoken with Tyre on that ill-fated day.
“He said he wanted to ride the swing on International,” she told reporters. “I said, ‘OK. Ride it twice and ride it for me, too.’”
However, just after investigations by the Sentinel and WFTV, her story began to implode.
According to the Sentinel, Johnson’s real name is Lewishena Lavonia Browning, 32, and Sampson’s relatives has no idea who she is.
According to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, Sampson’s mother denied knowing Browning, and an attorney for the family stated they were not related.
According to officials, the case has not progressed to the level of a crime, so no charges were filed at this time. Browning, on the other hand, is still facing the consequences of her foul ways.
Browning was fired from her job at an strip club in Orlando, where she had worked for 5 years, according to the Sentinel.
William Sierer, the owner of Flash Dancers, called her actions “unconscionable.”
“I feel terrible about it,” he admitted to the paper.
Sierer claims that surveillance video from the club reveals Browning working the evening Sampson died and the next day.
Others at the club had expressed concern about Browning’s behaviour in the past, according to Sierer, but he “didn’t really see it coming.”
Browning, according to the Sentinel, is awaiting trial for arson after reportedly setting fire to a vehicle in August. She has a history of domestic violence and continuing to drive with a suspended or revoked license, and she gave police a fake identity during a traffic stop in April.
