Four weeks after his funeral, more remains of slain U.S. Army Sgt. La David Johnson have been identified, the Pentagon confirmed Tuesday.
The remains were identified via DNA testing and retrieved from the spot near the village of Tongo Tongo, Niger, where Johnson and three other American soldiers were ambushed and killed on Oct. 4 by ISIS-linked militants, two U.S. defense officials told NBC News.
It was not clear, the officials said, if the bone fragments would be buried with Johnson, who was laid to rest on Oct. 1 at a cemetery in Hollywood, Florida.
There also was no immediate response to the grim discovery from Johnson’s pregnant widow, Myeshia Johnson.
But Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., a close family friend, said it was a shame she had to find out about it via the news.
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“He left a Gold Star Family and to learn about his final moments on TV and in the newspaper is a shame for this nation,” she told reporters Tuesday. “It is a shame for any Gold Star Family to go through the pain and agony of learning about their son’s last moments on TV.”
Johnson, a 25-year-old father of two from Miami Gardens, was killed alongside Staff Sgt. Bryan C. Black, 35, of Puyallup, Washington; Staff Sgt. Jeremiah W. Johnson, 39, of Springboro, Ohio; and Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright, 29, of Lyons, Georgia.
His tragic death led to a political fight with President Donald Trump after he called Myeshia Johnson as she was driving to collect her husband’s body from Dover Air Base.
Myeshia Johnson said she asked that it be placed on speakerphone so Wilson and the others in the car could hear it.
“I heard him stumbling on trying to remember my husband’s name, and that’s what hurt me the most because if my husband is out there fighting for our country and he risked his life for our country, why can’t you remember his name?” Myeshia Johnson told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “And that made me cry even more.”
Wilson confirmed Johnson’s account. “He said, ‘But you know he must’ve known what he signed up for,'” she said.
That sparked a heated denial from Trump, who called Wilson “wacky.”
“I didn’t say what that congresswoman said, I didn’t say it at all,” Trump told reporters. “And she knows it.”
Later, Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, waded into the controversy by ripping Wilson for going public with the details of the president’s call to Johnson’s widow. And he claimed the congresswoman delivered a 2015 speech at an FBI field office dedication in which she “talked about how she was instrumental in getting the funding for that building,” rather than keeping the focus on the fallen agents for which it was named.
Video of the speech contradicted Kelly’s claim.