It depends on what you mean by ‘suicide’

The developments in Ukraine, as it’s struggled with rigged elections, poisoned presidents, and foreign interference, have been fascinating for political observers around the world. One report over the weekend, however, stood out in its peculiarity.

Ukraine’s former interior minister was found dead Friday morning in an apparent suicide just hours before he was to meet with prosecutors looking into the September 2000 killing of an investigative reporter.

The gangland-style slaying of journalist Georgiy Gongadze, 31, whose decapitated body was found in a forest about 70 miles from Kiev, provoked widespread criticism that members of then-president Leonid Kuchma’s government were involved.

The former minister, Yuri Kravchenko, 53, was discovered at his house with two bullet wounds to the head.

At the outset, let me acknowledge that a) Kravchenko’s death is not a joking matter; and b) I don’t know much of anything about gunshots.

That said, I was struck by two phrases in this article: “apparent suicide” and “two bullet wounds to the head.” I haven’t read anything about suicide since Durkheim in college, but as a rule, isn’t one shot to the head the more traditional approach? And wouldn’t two shots necessarily suggest that this key witness, who was just hours from meeting with prosecutors, maybe wasn’t the one firing the gun? Just a thought.