Divorce Filing May Have Led To Shooting

The man accused of shooting his wife in the chest Sunday was angry because she filed for divorce last month, a detective said.

Charles A. Johnson, 47, was charged Monday with one count of first-degree assault in the shooting of Kathy J. Johnson, his wife of 22 years.

The 42-year-old woman filed for divorce last month after moving out of the couple’s home at 6213 E. Valleyview, according to her divorce petition.

Kathy Johnson, who took her clothes, silver service and Mary Kay cosmetics inventory with her, wrote in the petition that the marriage was “irretrievably broken.”

She asked a judge to prohibit her husband from selling any of their property or to harass her until the divorce was settled.

A hearing on her request was scheduled for last Friday, but neither party appeared.

Charles Johnson has been distraught over the breakup and had threatened to shoot his wife’s new boyfriend and hurt himself, sheriff’s Detective Cal Walker wrote in an affidavit of probable cause filed in District Court.

Walker wrote in the affidavit that “Charles Johnson presents an extreme danger to himself and to others based upon past violent behaviors and alleged physical abuse.”

Walker recommended that Charles Johnson be held without bond. District Court Commissioner Vance Peterson set bond at $250,000.

According to deputies’ accounts, the couple argued Sunday morning at a garage sale Charles Johnson was holding outside their home.

Kathy Johnson, who was listed in serious condition in a local hospital Monday, told detectives she left the sale in her black Honda and her husband followed in his Ford pickup.

The woman told deputies Charles Johnson ran her off Glenrose Road by smashing into her car and then shot her five times at close range with a small chrome handgun.

He then rammed her car twice more before driving away. He later turned himself in.

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