Sean Johnson

## Description

Sweet is the leader of the Grove Street Families gang, which is based in Ganton, Los Santos. He is the oldest son of Beverly Johnson and the older brother of Carl, Kendl, and Brian.

## History

### Background

Sweet was born to Beverly Johnson and an unnamed father in Los Santos. He was later present at the births of his three younger siblings, Carl, Kendl, and Brian. Carl described Sweet as *"the man of the house"*, since they barely knew their father. Sweet was also often bringing necessary money to the family through robbing other people. After 1987, Sweet became the leader of the Grove Street Families and recruited Big Smoke. Later on, Ryder and Carl joined the gang. His younger brother Brian died in an accident, which Sweet blamed on his other brother Carl; this resulted in Carl leaving for Liberty City. Sweet then moved out into his own house, two doors down from his childhood home. As stated by Big Bear during a deleted dialogue between himself and CJ, after Brian's death, and CJ's departure, Sweet became a "hard man to be with", and when the Seville Boulevard and Temple Drive sets split up from the Grove, Sweet didn't do anything about it, which was one of the major factors in Big Bear's defection, and Grove Street's loss of power and influence.

Throughout the game, Sweet is seen to have two different girlfriends, one of which Carl saved. However, since Sweet shows little to no attention when Carl throws his girl out near the end of the game, it is implied that Sweet and her are not in a relationship and he only has one girlfriend.

### Events of *Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas*

#### Beverly's Death

**“***No! Oh shit! Hell!***”**

— Sweet running to his mother's home, after the drive-by attack

**Sweet**: "*Carl, it's Sweet.*"
**CJ**: "*Hey, wassup, Sweet? What you want?*"
**Sweet**: "*I think you better come home. It's Moms....she's dead, bro.*"
—Sweet's call to Carl
Sweet continued to lead the Grove Street Families, whose influence began to decline as their rivals began to manufacture and sell drugs. His childhood friend, Big Smoke, attempted to convince him to start selling drugs to help the Grove Street Families, but Sweet refused. The Ballas, with whom Big Smoke and Ryder (another childhood friend) are now connected with, plot to kill Sweet and perform a drive-by shooting at the Johnson House. The gang, however, instead miss Sweet altogether and kill his mother instead, which results in Carl Johnson returning from Liberty City.

#### Carl's Return

**“***That's another funeral you ran away from, fool. Just like Brian's.***”**

— Sweet to Carl

At the funeral, Sweet and his sister Kendl are reunited with their brother Carl. Sweet angered Kendl by insulting her boyfriend, and berated Carl for missing both their brother's and mother's funerals. Sweet's dislike of Carl, prior to his return to Los Santos, is seen during The Introduction where he states that Carl "has his own life, more than he deserves", and that he "can rot in hell for all I give a fuck".

Sweet didn't trust Carl for a short time, but he later realized his true intentions of staying and helping the Grove Street Families. This resulted in a more brotherly relationship.

Sweet then decided to have Carl work for the gang, including to putting the gang tag across Los Santos' poorer districts, killing some Ballas drug dealers, killing some Ballas attempting a drive-by, and meeting an old friend and killing Ballas gang members in Jefferson. He also had Carl meet Kendl's boyfriend Cesar Vialpando, member of the rival gang Varrios Los Aztecas, with Carl reporting that he will be good to Kendl.

Sweet's leadership and the gang's continued decline began to lead to factions within the Grove Street Families agitating to break away. This is shown during Sweet's Girl, where Sweet phones his brother requesting help to escape from the Seville Boulevard Families, who are have cornered him and his girlfriend in Playa del Seville. Carl manages to rescue them and later Sweet arranges a meeting for the various factions, including the Temple Drive Families, which is interrupted by the police. The gang however, continue to do well despite the fractions with Carl taking control of Glen Park and killing Kane, a high-ranked Ballas member.

#### Imprisoned

**Sweet**: "*Grove Street is king! Say it with me ni\*\*as, Grove Street is KING! Yeah!*"
**GSF members**: "*GROVE STREET IS KING!*"
―Sweet and other GSF members during mission The Green Sabre.
Sweet is later involved in a shootout with various Ballas members, who attack in seemingly endless waves of vans. He is shot during the shootout, but is saved from a premature death, due to the assistance of Carl and three other Grove Street Families members, although Carl does inform Sweet of the betrayal of Big Smoke and Ryder and their alliance with Frank Tenpenny and Eddie Pulaski of C.R.A.S.H. The police show up on the scene and arrest both Sweet and Carl. Sweet is later imprisoned in a prison hospital "upstate" but Carl is taken to Angel Pine by Tenpenny, Pulaski and Jimmy Hernandez and begins his life in exile in the rural part of the state of San Andreas.

#### Life while imprisoned

**“***Sweet is alive. Alive and inside. He's in a prison hospital being treated for gunshot wounds, awaiting trial.***”**

— Frank Tenpenny

Carl continues to work his way up the criminal underworld in San Fierro and becomes aware of the Loco Syndicate, led by Jizzy B., T-Bone Mendez and Mike Toreno, who are selling drugs to members of the Los Santos Vagos, who are in alliance with Big Smoke, the Ballas and the Russian Mafia. Carl begins working for them, allowing his new Triad allies to find out more about their dealings. Carl later kills Jizzy, T-Bone Mendez and seemingly obliterating Mike Toreno, along with former ally Ryder. He later receives a phone call from an unknown man who reveals himself to be Mike Toreno, who had sent another man as a decoy during Toreno's Last Flight. Carl begins to work for the government agent and his work is rewarded, as Toreno helps secure the release of Sweet, who is released during Home Coming.

During his imprisonment, Sweet was taken "upstate" and placed in D-wing cell 13 according to Mike Toreno in the mission Interdiction. The prisoner in his cell to the left was a child killer who wanted to rip his throat out and to the right a white supremacist who wanted to eat his heart. Mike Toreno also ensures Sweet's safety during incarceration, as he assures to Carl that if "he gets touched, a prison guard goes home and finds that his wife and kids have been murdered".

#### Release from prison

**“***This is home, man. Get these fuckers out of mom's house. You was born in there, Damn!***”**

— Sweet

Carl tells Sweet of his and Kendl's new life in San Fierro and Las Venturas, trying to convince him to move away from the hood. Sweet, however, insists on returning to Ganton and, upon on their return, they retake control of the area. Sweet then accompanies Carl as the two re-take Glen Park and rescue Big Bear from the clutches of the drug dealer B Dup, with Sweet taking him to rehab. Carl is then instructed to take control of Idlewood, one of the districts neighbouring Ganton.

During this time, Frank Tenpenny had finally been charged with racketeering, corruption, narcotics, and sexual assault. However, he was found not guilty due to Carl killing most of the witnesses under Tenpenny's orders and is released, resulting in riots across Los Santos' poorer districts. Sweet, who had joined Carl, Kendl, Cesar, The Truth, Maccer and Madd Dogg to watch the news at Madd Dogg's mansion, is then driven home by Carl.

Shortly afterwards, Sweet allows Carl to help Cesar Vialpando retake his neighborhood from the Vagos, as wanting Carl to "repay his debts" for the countless times that Cesar helped them and their gang.

#### End of problems

Shortly afterwards, the two brothers decide to take on the Ballas, stop their drug manufacturing and kill Big Smoke. Beforehand, however, Sweet has Carl take over many territories all over Los Santos in order to obtain concrete information about Big Smoke's location, and after Carl successfully does so, Carl breaks into the manufacturing plant and kills Big Smoke, despite Ballas, Los Santos Vagos, San Fierro Rifa and Russian Mafia members attempting to stop him. After killing Smoke, Carl is interrupted by Frank Tenpenny, who sets fire to some of the machinery. Carl, however, manages to escape out of the building just in time to see Tenpenny escape in a fire truck.

Sweet, however, grabs hold of one of the truck's ladders, furious for Tenpenny's actions. Carl then drives after his brother in an open-top Feltzer, which Sweet eventually drops into. Sweet takes the wheel and the two give chase, fending off the police and rival gang members. The two continue to chase Tenpenny until he crashes his fire truck, which goes over a bridge and crashing into Grove Street. Sweet and Carl, along with Kendl, Cesar and The Truth, then watch Tenpenny die from his injuries sustained from the accident after he climbs out of the truck's cabin. Sweet prevents Carl from taking a shot at the dead cop, stating Tenpenny killed himself in a car accident most likely has a way that it will not connect to Ganton.

The five then return to the Johnson House and are joined by Madd Dogg, Ken Rosenberg, Maccer and Kent Paul as they celebrate their newfound success.

## Personality

Sweet is described in the CRASH dossier (viewable in the instruction manual) as "naive, but powerful". He is intensely loyal to his neighborhood, but he can be harshly judgmental of people. As leader of the Grove Street Families, he idealistically thought of using them as a means to keep crack and other hard drugs off the streets, and even when GSF's influence began to wane, he refused to compromise family and friends, and originally founded the Grove Street Families as a way of keeping his hood safe. When CJ leaves for Liberty City after Brian's death, he views it as a betrayal of both the gang and his family, and is reluctant to forgive him. Once CJ has proven himself, however, Sweet angrily stands up for him when others insult him. Due to his loyalty, Sweet is also extremely provincial, refusing to leave the hood and failing to show interest in the world outside of Grove Street. He deeply cares for CJ and Kendl and tells CJ to escape with Kendl while he is injured and being arrested by the cops in the mission The Green Sabre.

While in prison, Sweet becomes despondent and gives up hope of ever getting out. After his release from prison, Sweet becomes angry at CJ over his decision to abandon Grove Street. He refuses to go and see any of the properties CJ has acquired, and returns to his house in Ganton. However, in the end the two brothers manage to take back their home and get rid of Tenpenny and rebuild the GSF as Los Santos's most powerful gang.

Unlike the leaders of the Ballas and the Los Santos Vagos, Sweet is not a coward and often leads attacks on the rival gangs' home turf.

## Vehicles

Sweet owns a bright blue Greenwood, with a licence plate reading GROVE4L ("Grove 4 Life").

It is destroyed during the mission Reuniting the Families, after being driven through a Sprunk billboard, falling onto the highway below and colliding with a petrol tanker. Sweet later purchases an identical car, and when Carl complains that he can't believe that Sweet "bought that same bucket-ass car", Sweet comments that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".