Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

GTA: San Andreas — Story Overview (Rewritten & Enhanced)

The year is 1992. Crime runs deep in the streets of California’s biggest cities, and the air in Los Santos is thick with tension. You step into the shoes of Carl “CJ” Johnson, a 25-year-old African American who’s just returned to his hometown after spending five years in Liberty City.

CJ left Los Santos in 1987, fleeing the grief and guilt after his younger brother Brian died—an event that fractured his family. His older brother Sweet never forgave him, blaming Carl for walking away. Now, CJ is back—not for a reunion, but for a funeral. His mother, Beverly Johnson, has been killed in a drive-by shooting, likely aimed at Sweet, who’s become a target in the gang wars tearing the city apart.

But the moment CJ sets foot back home, he’s dragged into trouble. Corrupt police officer Frank Tenpenny, the ruthless head of the “C.R.A.S.H.” unit (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums), stops Carl in his tracks. Tenpenny, along with his right-hand man Eddie Pulaski, pins a murder on CJ—the killing of fellow officer Ralph Pendelbury, who had been digging too close into Tenpenny’s shady dealings. In truth, Tenpenny orchestrated the murder himself, but he’s using Carl as his scapegoat.

Now, with a criminal record hanging over his head and his old life in chaos, CJ is forced to play along. Under threat from the very people sworn to uphold the law, he’s pulled back into a world he thought he’d left behind. Working in the shadows, navigating gang loyalties, family tensions, and the corruption that infects every layer of the city, CJ begins a journey that will take him far beyond the borders of Los Santos—and deep into a battle for power, loyalty, and survival.