‘Nobody can figure out what happened’

Neighbors of James and Christine Braun Johnson say they are baffled by the murder and suicide that took place on their quiet, leafy Oceanside street on July 15.

At about 6 p.m. that evening, officers from the Nassau County Police Department’s 4th Precinct responded to 2856 Nicole Court, requested to make what they termed a “wellness check” on the residents there. It is not clear whether the call came from a friend of the couple or one of James Johnson’s children from an earlier marriage.

When police entered the condominium they found Johnson, 73, and his wife, 63, dead from gunshot wounds. Police sources termed the incident a murder-suicide, with Johnson shooting his wife and then turning the rifle on himself.

Police told the Herald that the gun that was used did not have to be registered, which, in New York state, typically means that the weapon was either a rifle or a shotgun. A police spokesperson declined to comment further on the weapon.

Neighbors said that Johnson was either a retired architect or engineer who often helped the condominium board with problems related to the buildings and grounds in the 45-unit condo complex. In his leisure time, one neighbor said, he loved to fish on his boat, which was moored near the Lawrence Country club.

Christine, neighbors said, was an avid tennis player.

According to those neighbors, the couple had lived in the complex for more than 25 years.

“They were very nice, normal, everyday people,” said Gil Balanoff, an attorney who lives two doors down from the couple’s unit.. “There was no indication that they did not get along. They got along well with the neighbors, and often entertained friends in their home. He loved fishing on his boat and she loved tennis.”

He added, “You couldn’t find two people who were more compatible.”

Balanoff said that James Johnson had a stroke seven or eight months ago, but that it “had no lasting effects other than the fact that he walked with a cane for balance. The stroke did not affect his speech or his mental faculties,” he said.

Balanoff said that when he and his wife went away on a short vacation last year, the Johnsons looked in on their older children.

James Johnson had a son and a daughter from a previous marriage, Balanoff added, but the couple had no children of their own.

“Nobody here can figure out what happened,” he concluded. “It’s possible that nobody will ever know what happened that day.”