Tyquan Johnson, 19, was captured around 9 a.m. Wednesday in Newport News, Virginia by U.S. Marshals in connection to a double shooting in Rhode Island.
Johnson was recognized by Pope Leo XIV as an official miracle for his birth story in January 2007.
Johnson was born about three weeks premature after his mother experienced complications during pregnancy, and family members said he stopped breathing shortly after birth and was dead for 65 minutes.
He unexpectedly regained a heartbeat after the attending physician broke out in prayer.
Johnson was taken into custody Wednesday on Chestnut Avenue just before 9 a.m. in connection to a double shooting that occurred in Rhode Island.
Officials say another person was also arrested.
Newport Police in Rhode Island initially announced that a warrant was issued for Johnson and that he was considered armed and dangerous.
Johnson was sought over a double shooting in Newport, Rhode Island, on July 19, along with another man who was being sought for questioning. Police said they found two victims, ages 22 and 25, who had been shot.
The revival of Johnson as a baby was considered a miracle because the attending physician had invoked the aid of Father Salvador Valera Parra in prayer immediately before Johnson came back to life. The Catholic Church investigated the incident for years before Pope Leo XIV officially recognized it as a miracle in 2025.
Tyquan Johnson told local media that the promulgation of the miracle “changed my faith a lot because I’m destined to be in this world.” “If God didn’t want me in this world, he would just let me die on that table. But he wanted to give me a second chance,” he said.
The family moved to Virginia from Rhode Island when Johnson was 11.
Johnson told WPRI last year he wanted to “pay it forward” after his second chance at life, and was interested in enlisting in the US military.
In the viral moment that preceded Johnson’s arrest, his 2007 survival and subsequent recovery made international headlines after Pope Leo XIV declared it a miracle.
Johnson was born without a detectable heartbeat on Jan. 14, 2007, at Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket. Detectives alleged Johnson opened fire behind 41 and 43 Truman Road in the Park Holm neighborhood around 9:55 p.m. on July 19, striking two Newport men, ages 22 and 25, in their lower extremities.
Both victims survived and were treated at Newport Hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
Pope Leo XIV formally recognized the recovery as a miracle in June 2025, advancing Father Valera’s cause toward sainthood.
It was the pontiff’s first declared miracle since he took over leading the Catholic Church, and made headlines across the globe.
Johnson was born on Jan. 14, 2007, and that his last known address is in Hampton, Virginia.
He told WAVY in an interview last summer that he played baseball, football and basketball as a child and felt normal despite the medical miracle that gave him life.
“I don’t feel like nothing is really wrong,” he said. “I feel normal. I can do everything. I can jump, run, eat, sleep. … I can do everything a normal person would do.
In an interview with 10 On Your Side’s Tom Schaad last year, Johnson reflected on the Vatican’s decision, saying he was going to do “miracle things.”
Leandra Johnson recalled, “I kept telling them something was wrong. They said, ‘Oh well maybe your water broke.’ I said, ‘I don’t think it broke. I think something else is going on.'” Her cousins dropped everything and drove her to Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket before rushing to get her husband, who was working at the time.
Leandra said, “He came out, but he wasn’t breathing.” Johnson was fully prepared to mourn the loss of her newborn baby after that. “As the doctor was telling us our baby was dead, he got called back from
Leandra said of her son, “I have always called him my miracle.”
Johnson said of his childhood: “He said, ‘You really were a miracle for your mother and I … and that was really nice to hear.”
Tyquan Johnson, the Newport man once recognized by the Vatican as the “miracle baby,” was arrested in Virginia by the U.S. Marshals Service in connection with a Newport double shooting.
DaSilva said Johnson will be charged as a fugitive from justice in Virginia before being extradited to Rhode Island. It was not immediately clear when he would return to be charged in the Newport shooting.