Mich. Gunman Plotted Killings for Years

A gunman in Wisconsin who killed three teenage swimmers last week plotted to commit a shooting for the past 4 or 5 years, the AP reports, and finally implemented his plan after fearing police would charge him in an unrelated sexual assault. Scott Johnson had hidden an assault rifle and ammo box in the woods near a bridge separating Wisconsin and Michigan at least a year before, according to the criminal complaint against him.

Johnson told police he had lured a woman to a spot near the bridge the evening before the shooting, and sexually assaulted her. Fearing she would call the police, Johnson said he felt "he had nothing to lose and the only power he had in this life was to take." He staked out the bridge and as four teenagers began to climb the hill he was on, he killed three and wounded the fourth. Johnson was charged yesterday with three counts of first-degree intentional homicide.


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