Carl Johnson

"After five years on the east coast... it was time to go home."

- Carl Johnson

Carl Johnson, better known by name as CJ, is the main protagonist of the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. CJ is a co-leader of the "Grove Street Families" (GSF), along with his brother, Sean "Sweet" Johnson, GFS is a criminal gang dedicated to the alleged marijuana trafficking, arms smuggling and bank robberies. Sweet suggested that CJ was born in the Johnson House, a two floor home in Grove Street, a cul-de-sac in Ganton, Los Santos, which was owned by the Johnson family matriarch, Beverly Johnson. Carl is the second child of a family of four (in birth order): Sean, Carl, Kendl, and Brian.

Five years prior to the beginning of the game, CJ left San Andreas and took up work in Liberty City out of discontent for the degrading situation of Los Santos. There, in Liberty City he earned his living working for the Family mob Leone. As the game opens, CJ arrives back in Los Santos following news of his mother's death, only to be located by corrupt police officers Frank Tenpenny, Eddie Pulaski and Jimmy Hernandez, who immediately frame him for their recent murder of a fellow police officer who threatened to expose their illegal racketeering.