Backwards, as usual

The Baltimore Sun has an article by Brent Jones about another stupid dead politican:

A Pennsylvania municipal official accused of raping a woman in Baltimore was found dead yesterday after an apparent suicide in upstate New York, authorities said. Michael Johnson Jr., 40, of York, Pennsylvania, shot himself in the head and chest after fleeing US marshals and hiding in the closet of an apartment in Cohoes, New York, law enforcement officials said. Federal authorities and local police were closing in on Johnson when they heard gunshots come from a room the fugitive had locked himself into, according to Gary Mattison, supervisor of the Albany, New York division of the US Marshals Service.
About an hour later, officers knocked down the door and found Johnson, Mattison said. He is believed to have died at the scene, authorities said. Johnson, president of the Penn Township Board of Commissioners, disappeared about two weeks ago after he was released on $100,000 bail after being charged with raping a Baltimore woman. Police eventually linked Johnson to two other rapes in York, where he had served as a police officer. In each incident, he is accused of posing as a police officer and raping a woman in a minivan.
According to court documents, Johnson, a York police officer from 1994 to 1999, was born in Baltimore and was an Army veteran. He was also a married father of two who ran for Congress in 2002. Police said Johnson picked up a 21-year-old woman in the Baltimore Highlands area on 2 November and told her he was arresting her for prostitution as part of a sting operation. According to court records, he handcuffed her to the back seat of a minivan, drove her to an industrial area in the rear of the 4400 block of E. Monument Street, and sexually assaulted her. The victim gave investigators a license plate number and a description of the silver van, information that led to Johnson's arrest after a two-hour standoff. Although he was released on bail, Johnson was to turn himself in after allegations of the two other rapes. But he failed to do so and had been on the run since.

Rico says these guys always get it backwards; shoot yourself first, then do the crime. So much better for the potential victim, so much easier for the cops...