No clear link between Ark. leader and killer

Two guns recovered
Officers chased the suspect to Sheridan, 30 miles south of Little Rock. After avoiding spike strips and a roadblock, the suspect emerged from his truck and began shooting at deputies and state troopers, who returned fire. Johnson later died at a hospital. Police found two guns in the truck.

Little Rock police Lt. Terry Hastings didn't say what the men discussed after Johnson entered Gwatney's office but said it was not a heated exchange.

"They introduced themselves, and at that time he pulled out a handgun and shot Chairman Gwatney several times," he said.

Police said they could find no criminal record for Johnson. "If he's got a record, it's minor," Hastings said.

Conway police called Johnson's departure a termination but Heath said the man left of his own accord. "When he left yesterday, he voluntarily left. We asked him 'What's going on? Do you want to talk about something? It was 'Let's talk.' It was not about termination," Heath said.

Johnson lived along a one-lane gravel road in a one-story ranch-style house of brown brick. Multicolored Christmas lights still hung around Johnson's carport door. In the garden, a six-foot sunflower was wilted, pointing toward the ground.

Neighbors stunned
Johnson's neighbors were stunned that the same man who tilled in a garden behind his home and walked his beagle to the end of the one-lane road each day could be a killer.

"Honestly, it was a shocker," said Helen Mowrer, 73. "You don't ever know about people, but that's the last thing in the world I would have ever considered."

Johnson's father, a World War II veteran, worked for years as a farmer before moving near Searcy with his wife, Mathel, and their three daughters. Johnson moved into his parents' single-story ranch home after his father's death in 2006.

Ripe red tomatoes sat on the two steps leading up to a sliding glass door at the back of Johnson's home, likely picked from the tomato stalks still up among his row of vegetables and flowers in the back. Sunflowers, some towering more than six feet, wilted down under the August sun.

Neighbor Jeannie Liles said Johnson would bring tomatoes, squash and peppers by their house next door. When Liles first moved in, she kept her grandchildren back as a precaution. But soon, the children scurried over to his large backyard, often throwing balls back and forth with Johnson.

Sometimes, Johnson would even come in her yard to pick up fallen tree limbs after strong winds tore through the pastures surrounding their small neighborhood.

"He was not a person of a lot of words, but he did carry on conversations," said Liles, 60.

Worked an overnight shift
Johnson worked an overnight shift at Target store, meaning he would leave late in the evening for work and return home around noon. He would wake up in the afternoon to leash up and walk his dog, often taking Liles' two dogs with him for the stroll.

If something troubled Johnson, his neighbors couldn't tell. The only hint came the day before the shooting, when Liles' husband saw a paper target set up in the backyard. They dismissed it as practice for the upcoming bow hunting season in Arkansas.

Johnson was a member of the Cleburne County Shooting Club. Ken Buster, a former club secretary, said Johnson was quiet and that he never heard him talk politics. Buster described Johnson as "average to subaverage" with a gun.

"He would never impress anybody with his shooting skills," Buster said.

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