Not op, but I agree with him too: it sounds off for no good reason.

It's as if instead of saying "John walked to the park", the editor wrote "John was moved to the park by walking".

And I also find asinine the idea of stripping the sense of agency in someone's last moment, as if it were more respectful. Suicide is a sad, touchy subject no matter how the sentence is constructed anyway.

Disclaimer: I'm not a native English speaker.