Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg rose to national prominence last year after he indicted former President Donald Trump.

However, Bragg got some unwanted attention last week when an activist with ties to the district attorney was linked with a severed human head. 

Head and torso found at Bronx apartment building

According to the Daily Mail, police detained 48-year-old New York City criminal justice reform advocate Sheldon Johnson last Thursday.

The move came two days after a torso was discovered in a blue bin at his apartment complex while a human head turned up in a freezer at the Bronx building.

Video surveillance footage also emerged showing Johnson wearing blonde wigs and carrying a large plastic box from the crime scene.

Meanwhile, the New York Post reported that the victim was heard begging for his life by neighbors on Tuesday before two gunshots were fired.

The building's superintendent told the Post that he called police, stating, "I said, 'Listen, I want to do a welfare check on a tenant because the person who is coming in and out is not the tenant.'"

Johnson said to have previously been incarcerated with alleged victim

"He brought in the bin … I told them, 'Why is he bringing in the bin at 2 o’clock in the morning? He’s bringing in a bin so late," the superintendent explained.

"We tried to see if he took out the bin. He never took out the bin. I told them, ‘Look for a bin.’ And sure enough, it was there," he added.

The Post noted that Johnson was subsequently arrested on murder charges and was being held without bail on Thursday evening.

The paper cited unnamed sources as saying that the victim was 44-year-old Collin Small, who may have had a dispute with Johnson dating back to when they were both incarcerated at New York's Sing Sing prison.

Photo shows Bragg shaking hands with Johnson

Meanwhile, American Thinker columnist Monica Showalter pointed out that Johnson is a staffer with Queens Defenders, a group which seeks to "reduce the impact of a criminal record on employment, housing, education, and public benefits."

Manhattan District Attorney - Alvin Bragg standing with Sheldon Johnson, who now faces murder charges after a head was found in the Bronx.

Cops found a dismembered body inside a Bronx apartment and Johnson, 48, a staffer at Queen's Defenders — is the accused killer caught on… pic.twitter.com/lND40n3RcY

— LiveONE.tv (@LiveONE_TV) March 7, 2024

She pointed out how the left-leaning organization posted a since-deleted image to its Instagram page of Johnson shaking hands with Bragg.