According to a Rochester Police report that The Detroit News was able to obtain, former Red Wing Greg Johnson passed away from what appeared to be a suicide.
On July 7, just before 10 a.m., Johnson’s wife Kristin discovered him in a storage closet in their basement. Authorities said they found a revolver and one bullet close to Johnson.
The Oakland County Medical Examiner has finished an autopsy, but on Wednesday it declined to comment on its findings.
Johnson, 48, was a Red Wings player from 1993 until 1997.
Long-time Johnson agent Tom Laidlaw stated, “We couldn’t believe it,” but he wouldn’t go into detail about the circumstances of Johnson’s passing.
The police report states that there was no suicide note left. According to Laidlaw, Johnson’s immediate relatives declined to comment.
Kristin Johnson stated
law enforcement Despite his “many concussions during his playing career,” she could not see any indications of depression in him.
Given several diagnoses of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Johnson’s death occurs at a time when attention to brain injuries in professional athletes—mainly football and hockey players—is focused more than ever. Multiple skull traumatising blows result in chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
Only after the athlete has passed away can investigation uncover the presence of such blows. Among the more noticeable signs of CTE include impulsive behaviour, aggressiveness, and depression.
According to Kristin Johnson, she did not observe any indications of sadness or anything that could have caused him to hurt himself.
When Kristin Johnson heard the garage door open that Sunday morning, she thought it was her daughter coming home, she told the police from a friend’s house.
In addition, she saw that a new coffee pot had been produced, so she proceeded to the patio, where her spouse always drank his coffee. He was not present.
She also observed that the dogs of the couple had been fed, but that the basement door was closed, which was strange because the dogs usually went and came from the lower level without restriction.
Then Kristin Johnson looked into the storage room after seeing a light was on but saw nothing.
She thought it strange that the light in the storage room was on, so she went back after walking upstairs and shouting for Greg once more. That’s when she saw her husband, laying next to a toppled ladder.
Police were informed by Kristin Johnson that the couple was having no marital problems and that the prior
Had gone out to dinner that evening, come home, and taken a seat by a bonfire in the backyard.
She agreed that her husband handled financial matters, but she said that she knew nothing about them.
According to her, the pair listed their Rochester house for sale in order to relocate to Livonia, where he works at a financial firm.
Police on the scene were informed by Kristin Johnson’s father, Thomas Kotzian, that Johnson worked in a position that required “very high pressure.”
Additionally, Kotzian reported to the police that Johnson had complained to him during dinner the previous evening about not receiving any offers on the Rochester house, but he claimed he wasn’t under any pressure to sell, saying, “It’s not like someone has a gun to my head.”
Kristin Johnson claimed not to have known that her
spouse was even a gun owner, although being anti-gun. According to police-obtained records, he bought the pistol in January 2017.
Not long after returning home, one of the Johnsons’ daughters was discovered.
Johnson, an Ontario native, spent 14 seasons as a player in the NHL, captaining the Nashville Predators, Chicago Blackhawks, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Red Wings. During the 1996 playoffs, he scored three goals for the Wings, which culminated in a conference finals matchup with the Colorado Avalanche.
In January 1997, 4½ months before Detroit won its first Cup in 42 years, the Wings traded Johnson to Pittsburgh.
“While Greg wasn’t Wayne Gretzky or Mark Messier, he was a captain in Nashville,” Laidlaw remarked.
who first became acquainted with Johnson during his tenure as Red Wing Dallas Drake’s representative while he was living in Bloomfield Hills in the 1990s.
Johnson spent the remainder of his career working with Laidlaw after he was signed. As Laidlaw put it, “People really respected him.”
Although Johnson was not a union player representative, he was nevertheless a well-respected spokesman for the players during the stressful 2004–05 lockout.
Johnson played for just one more season after the lockout, having to retire after the 2005–06 campaign due to a heart condition that was diagnosed at the Red Wings’ training camp in 2006.
According to Kristin Johnson, he was not on any medication for that illness.
On a podcast last week, Johnson’s former Red Wings colleague Darren McCarty mentioned the deceased player, saying, “Great person,
He experienced a few concussions and injuries, which may have been too much for him.
McCarty also brought up the CTE litigation against the NHL. A $19 million settlement between the NHL and retired players was reached in 2018, and other individual lawsuits have been brought and are still pending.
Although Laidlaw told The News he didn’t think Johnson was a party to any legal processes, it’s unclear if Johnson was involved in any of those litigation.
Kristin and her two daughters, Carson and Piper, survived Johnson. He comes from a large hockey family and was also survived by his sister and two brothers, who were all players. Ryan is one of his brothers and is a director for the Vancouver Canucks.
of the growth of players.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by Wujek-Calcaterra & Sons, Inc. in Shelby Township, and are still pending.
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