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Crime

On February 19th, 1983, 16-year-old Charles Tyberg was home alone. His mother and stepfather had left town, and they thought he was responsible enough to stay home and not cause any trouble. Unfortunately, they were wrong.

Tyberg got bored one night, so he decided to dress up in his stepfather’s police uniform and go for a joy ride in his stepfather’s cop car. He also took his stepfather’s service weapon.

Tyberg had two friends with him for the ride. The joyride started off well, and the teens went to a secluded park to shoot rabbits.

After having their fun, they got back in the police car and were preparing to leave when 26-year-old San Diego police officer Kirk Johnson pulled up driver door to driver door with Tyberg and his friends.

Tyberg could have given in and taken the charges and punishment for impersonating an officer.

Since he didn’t want to get in trouble, he pulled his stepfather’s 357 magnum and put five bullets into Officer Johnson, killing him.

Tyberg sped away and went home as if nothing had happened. A month later, one of his passengers told his father what happened. His dad took him to the police to give a statement.

The district attorney did not charge the passengers with a crime, but Tyberg was arrested and confessed to the shooting.

Legal Proceedings

Despite his confession, he pleaded not guilty and went to trial.

His defense claimed he was in a “fantasy world” when he took the officer’s life. They wanted a second-degree murder conviction.

A jury rejected his defense and convicted him of first-degree murder. He was later sentenced to 27 years to life in prison.

His conviction was thrown out in 1986 when the courts ruled his confession was inadmissible. A judge said detectives used deception to get the teen to confess.

A year later, Tyberg pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and agreed to serve 17 years to life.

Parole

He became eligible for parole after serving 8 and a half years, but because of the nature of his crime, his parole was denied multiple times.

Kirk’s brother, Eric, posted on a memorial page for Kirk Johnson in March 2023,  saying that Tyberg was paroled.