The Arkansas Shooting
Things are a little clearer today: Search of gunman’s house finds weapons and a will
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The man who fatally shot the chairman of the state Democratic Party had a Post-It note at home with the victim’s last name and phone number along with 14 guns, antidepressants and a last will and testament, according to court documents.
Police Thursday were exploring possible links between the gunman Timothy Dale Johnson and the party chairman, Bill Gwatney, 48. Johnson, 50, shot Gwatney to death Wednesday and after he lost his job at a Target and was killed by officers after a 30-minute chase.
The search of Johnson’s home in Searcy also turned up two sets of keys for vehicles from car lots Gwatney owned. Johnson also had a pistol and 13 long guns.
First off, they keep saying or implying he was fired, which is not accurate, he quit. He went into work and snapped, writing various complaints as graffiti on the walls. As he had been a good, long time employee, his manager tried to find out what was wrong, but Johnson just turned in his employee badge and left.
The fact that his will was apparently out and the presence of the antidepressants, would indicate that this was probably “suicide by police”. Gwatney would seem to have been his intended victim, but it will probably be found to be tied more to the car lots than his party position, perhaps a car deal gone wrong, or something equally mundane that occurred a while ago. The murder is part of the pattern of committing a violent crime to ensure the police shoot.
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The fact that his will was apparently out and the presence of the antidepressents, would indicate that this was probably “suicide by police”.
that was my reaction on reading your excerpt here.
The ending makes no sense any other way: his vehicle was disabled, he was surrounded by armed police officers, and he started firing.
He had antidepressants, so he must have had a doctor. He lived alone, so there was no one to catch any warning signs. None of his neighbors seemed to know him all that well, and no one at work seemed to be aware of any problems. We may never know what set him off.
I can think of one example, where even after we found out what the trigger was, we couldn’t believe how trivial it was, leaves from a neighbor’s tree that hadn’t been raked up. The neighbor was in the hospital at the time.