What were they thinking?

This from: The Yomiuri Shimbun

SAITAMA--A suspected armed robber shot himself in his car at about 11:40 a.m. Tuesday after being surrounded by police for more than eight hours at a parking lot in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture.

After the man shot himself in the head, police officers broke into the car and arrested the suspect, Ken Kaneko, 55. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, but pronounced dead there, the police said.

I heard this on the news last night and just thought, you have got to be kidding! The man is obviously dead, and you are arresting him? Ok maybe I don't understand all the laws of this land but I have know idea what they were thinking when this happened. Obviously your not reading the guy his rights or anything like that. I think it maybe the inability of most Japanese to be able to think and or act on those thoughts "outside of the box". Follow the guidelines no matter how stupid or inappropriate they are. Usually the guidelines do make things run smoothly but at other times you just want to wonder.