Mom Who Pushed Kids Onto 405 In Deadly Spree Feared Eclipse

CULVER CITY, CA — A woman believed to have stabbed her partner to death before pushing her baby and 9-year-old onto the San Diego (405) Freeway and ramming her car into a tree at 100 mph hour Monday morning was an astrology influencer posting apocalyptical warnings about Monday's solar eclipse in the dayss before her deadly rampage.

Police identified 34-year-old Danielle Cherakiyah Johnson as the woman who died in a fiery crash after killing her partner and baby shortly before the eclipse began. According to the Los Angeles Times, Johnson is the influencer known as Danielle Ayoka, a self-described astrologer, Reiki master teacher and recording artist.

Her online posts were increasingly frenetic and apocalyptic in the days leading up to Monday's eclipse.

On April 4 she posted on X, "This eclipse is the epitome of spiritual warfare. Get your protection on and your heart in the right place. The world is very obviously changing right now and if you ever needed to pick a side, the time to do right in your life is now. Stay strong you got this."

However, the next day, her post seemed even more frantic with dire warnings in all caps.

In a comment, she responded, "We Can do it!!! We can do it!!!! Can do it!!!! Believe!!!!! You (sic) magic is in what you believe. I believe we can be free!!! I believe we can be free!!!!!"

Her fixation with astrology and the apocalypse was interspersed with conspiracy theories and antisemitic posts.

The Times reported that in the days leading up to the eclipse and the killings, Johnson made various antisemitic posts online denigrating Jewish people, along with posts spouting conspiratorial theories about the origins of COVID-19.

Investigators are aware of her preoccupation with the eclipse and the apocalypse on social media and said it may have been a factor in the slayings. Still, they have not announced it as a motive for the tragic events of Monday morning.

Sources told The Times that investigators who searched her Woodland Hills apartment, where her partner was fatally stabbed Monday morning, found items including Tarot cards and black feathers.

Authorities said Johnson is suspected of killing her live-in partner, 29-year-old Jaelen Allen Chaney, in their shared apartment in the 6200 block of Variel Avenue in Woodland Hills, in an attack believed to have occurred around 3:40 a.m. Monday.

They haven't said what happened in the minutes before Chaney was killed. However, a neighbor who found his body told reporters he followed a blood trail from the complex's elevator to the couple's apartment where he saw signs of a struggle and a bloody crime.

After Chaney was stabbed to death, Johnson then allegedly grabbed her two daughters -- aged 8 months and 9 years old -- and fled the blood-filled apartment in a dark-colored Porsche Cayenne, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Around 4:30 a.m. Monday, the California Highway Patrol responded to the northbound San Diego (405) Freeway near the Sepulveda Boulevard/Howard Hughes Parkway exit in Culver City, where they found Johnson's 8-month-old daughter dead on the roadway and the 9-year-old girl on the right shoulder with moderate injuries.

Police said Johnson allegedly was driving on the freeway and slowed the vehicle down and then pushed the girls out of the car. The older girl was holding the baby when they were forced out of the vehicle.

It was the lone survivor, the 9-year-old girl, who put it all together for police.

“You have this poor 9 year-old little girl who has to live with this for the rest of her life,” Lt. Guy Golan, homicide supervisor for the LAPD Valley Bureau told The Los Angeles Times.

Around 5 a.m. Monday, the black Porsche Cayenne sped south on Pacific Coast Highway in Redondo Beach, slamming into a tree near Vincent Street. The driver, believed to be Johnson, died at the scene, police said.

The Los Angeles Police Department described the chain of events as a double-murder-suicide.

Johnson was an R&B recording artist who offered astrologically offering self-help and healing sessions for a fee.

Danielle Ayoka's website offers a variety of services, including weekly aura cleanses, Mercury retrograde grounding and Zodiac healing. According to a biography on the site, she claims to have had a "near-death experience at 3 years old," which led her into "Shamanism."

"After 3 years of intensive training, Danielle began to expand her abilities by creating a unique method of healing that combined her training along with her knowledge of energy, physics and psychology," according to the website. "After going to undergrad for Psychology, Danielle decided she wanted to go beyond the mundane limitations of the traditional therapeutic methods of healing and started her professional career.

"Offering services which include rituals, intuitive guidance, remote healing and astrology, Danielle has developed a grounded approach to total healing for the everyday struggles we face and experience in our lives."

City News Service contributed to this report.