GARLAND, Tex. — A sexually harassed U.S. Army soldier looked at Micah Johnson and saw what few others did: A man in dire need of psychiatric help.
Johnson’s unwanted overtures, including a kinky Victoria’s Secret gift, persuaded Ana Ma to seek protection in 2014 against the future Dallas cop killer, his military lawyer said.
After lodging a complaint against the Army reservist, Ma requested the military equivalent of a restraining order to keep Johnson away from her and her family — and suggested psychiatric care for her tormentor.
“Where she got the mental health issues from, I don’t know,” attorney Bradford Glendening told the Daily News. “But she saw something that apparently a lot of other people didn’t see.”
Johnson, 25, was killed by a bomb affixed to a police robot early Friday in a downtown Dallas parking garage after a hate-fueled rampage in which he killed five police officers and wounded seven more.
Two bystanders at a Black Lives Matter rally were also shot and wounded.
According to Glendening, Johnson wasn’t too highly regarded by his fellow soldiers during his six years in the reserves.
“I got the sense that he was generally disliked by his command, that he was the black sheep of his unit,” said Glendening. “He wasn’t overtly disrespectful, but he also didn’t carry himself in a respectful way.”
His obsessive and unrequited interest in Ma started during an eight-month tour in Afghanistan that began in November 2013.
“I’m sure he created a hostile work environment by being sexually forward with her,” Glendening told The News. “She asked for protection from him. And as a result of that, they kicked him out of Afghanistan and sent him back to the United States.”
The alleged victim asked that Johnson have “no contact with her” before the decision was made to dispatch the private first class, the lawyer said.
Ma downplayed her ordeal with the deranged gunman — and expressed sympathy Saturday for the murdered cops and their families.
“I haven’t gone through anything,” she said outside her suburban Dallas home. “You should focus on the victims.”
A former bunkmate who served with Johnson wrote on Facebook that the hateful menace was a sicko.
“We all knew he was a pervert cuz he got caught stealing girls’ panties but murdering cops is a different story,” Wells Newsome wrote. “You never know what someone is capable of until too late.”
Johnson’s boss told The News that he was a reliable worker at a Dallas-based social service company.
“He was probably one of the most efficient case note persons that we had,” said Jeppi Carnegie, who runs A Touch of Kindness.
“Never late, as far as turning in his stuff. … There was never an issue with him as far as employment with us,” he said. “I was just shocked; I was just as surprised as everybody else.”
Johnson’s relatives, including his brother and sister, gathered Saturday at the Garland, Tex., home of his dad.
At the home of the killer and his mother in Mesquite, Tex., visitors ran past reporters outside. Someone left flowers on the front stoop, and the family issued no statement to the media.
Later in the day, an anonymous threat against the Dallas police put officers on high alert.
Heavily-armed cops swarmed a police parking garage after a masked man was spotted nearby — but the search came up empty.
A search of Johnson’s two-story brick home turned up additional rifles, ammunition and bomb-making materials — along with a journal of combat tactics.
One neighbor told investigators that Johnson, who had no previous criminal record, was recently performing what looked like military training exercises in his yard, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Authorities said he was the lone shooter during the Thursday rampage where his intent was to kill as many white law enforcement officers as possible.
Ma was serving at the same forward operating base where Johnson worked as a private first class with a specialty in carpentry and masonry during his tour, Glendening said.
Johnson was sent back to the U.S. with a recommendation for an “other than honorable” Army discharge, the lawyer said.
But Glendening said he never saw any signs that Johnson might turn homicidal.
“There was nothing about my interaction with him that would lead me to believe he would commit any criminal misconduct, let alone what he’s accused of now,” the lawyer said.
Johnson’s Army separation case was referred to Glendening in August 2014. Johnson later received an honorable discharge for reasons that remain unclear to his lawyer.
Johnson would have been screened for mental health issues, including posttraumatic stress disorder, and brain injury before his discharge to see if he suffered a disorder that qualified him for disability, Glendening said.
“They have to pass that in order to be cleared for separation,” he said. “If the Army did what it’s supposed to do, he would have gone through that process.”
The lawyer said Johnson never said anything to him related to race or weapons that caused him concern.
“There was nothing that led me to believe he was any sort of extremist or radical in any way,” Glendening said.
