Judge, Two Others Fatally Shot at Atlanta Courthouse

[Walter Cronkite]

Emergency vehicles line a street outside the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta.

A judge, court reporter and deputy were killed and another deputy was wounded Friday in a shooting at the Fulton County Courthouse in downtown Atlanta. Authorities were hunting for the gunmen.

The judge, later identified as Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, was shot on the eighth floor of the courthouse, while one of the deputies was shot on a street corner just outside the building, said Officer Alan Osborne with the Atlanta Police Department.

Authorities were searching for a green Honda Accord that was carjacked from a newspaper reporter.

Fulton County Sheriff's Lt. Clarence Huber identified the suspect as 33-year-old Brian Nichols, who was on trial on rape charges stemming from an incident in August. It was not immediately known how the suspect got a gun.

James Bailey, a juror in the trial, said the jury was not in the courtroom at the time of the shooting. Nichols, who also faced charges of sodomy, possession of a machine gun, possession of a handgun, and possession of a large quantity of marijuana, had not taken the stand yet in the trial, which started Tuesday.

Bailey said Nichols made him and other jurors nervous. ''Every time he looked up, he was staring at you,'' Bailey said.

Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor announced the shootings on the floor of the Georgia Senate. ''It appears that Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes has lost his life, along with his court reporter,'' Taylor told lawmakers.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newsroom staff was being told that Don O'Briant, a features reporter for the paper, was beaten by the suspect and carjacked outside the courthouse. Mike King, an editorial board member for the paper, said O'Briant was taken to Grady Hospital.

Atlanta Police Sgt. John Quigley said one of the deputies died at the hospital later. He said the second deputy was grazed by a bullet and was being treated at the hospital.

''I saw one person on the street that they were perfoming CPR on,'' said court reporter Amy McKee.

District Attorney spokesman Erik Friedly said the shootings started shortly after 9 a.m. on the building's eighth floor.

''We heard some noise. It sounded like three or four shots. At the time, we thought it was just an engine backfiring,'' said Chuck Cole, a civil defense attorney who was in an adjoining parking deck when he heard gunfire at around 9:10 a.m.

All the judges in the building were locked in their chambers. The courthouse and other buildings in downtown Atlanta were on lockdown. Traffic in the blocks surrounding the courthouse was backed up as police cruisers flooded the area looking for the suspect.

Among the recent cases that Judge Barnes handled was the sentencing of Atlanta Thrashers player Dany Heatley, who pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide in the death of a teammate.

Barnes, 64, also drew national attention last month when he took the unusual step of ordering a mother of seven who pleaded guilty to killing her 5-week-old daughter to have a medical procedure that would prevent her from having more children.

Barnes was named to the Fulton County Superior Court bench on July 10, 1998. He also worked as a part-time Fulton County Magistrate and City Court Judge in Hapeville and Fairburn. Barnes was a 1972 graduate of Emory Law School in Atlanta and a graduate of Lebanon Valley College.

Source: AP

[Walter Cronkite]

Suspect in Atlanta Court Killings Now in Custody

Authorities said Nichols, the suspected gunman, was standing trial on rape charges.

A rape suspect accused of shooting a judge and two others at a courthouse was captured Saturday after a day on the lam in which he allegedly killed an immigration agent, stole his truck and took a woman hostage, officials said.

"Brian Nichols is in custody,'' said Officer Darren Moloney of the Gwinnett County Police Department. "Everybody is safe.''

Moloney said Nichols, 33, was armed and had a female hostage when he was caught at a suburban apartment complex.

The woman, who was not identified by authorities, called 911 to report that Nichols was in her apartment, Police Chief Charles Walters said. He said the woman did not know Nichols, and either escaped or was allowed to leave before police arrived.

"He literally waved a white flag or a T-shirt and came out,'' Walters said.

Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, shown here during a Feb. 6 hearing, was killed in Friday's shooting at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta.

FBI Spokesman Steve Lazarus said Nichols is a suspect in the courthouse shootings and the fatal shooting of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent found dead early Saturday.

The agent, identified as David Wilhelm, was discovered shot to death at an upscale townhouse complex, and his blue pickup truck, pistol and badge were missing.


Police said the truck was found at a different location, but did not elaborate. Nichols was taken into federal custody.

After Nichols' arrest, a crowd of people across the street from the apartment complex cheered as a black sports utility vehicle drove away, escorted by multiple police cars with lights flashing and sirens on.

Reporter Don O'Briant says the suspect beat him and demanded his car after fleeing the courthouse.

The courthouse shootings Friday set off a massive manhunt and created widespread chaos across Atlanta, where schools, restaurants and office buildings locked down amid fears that the suspect might strike again.

Nichols was being escorted to his retrial on rape and other charges Friday when he allegedly overpowered a court deputy, taking her gun, before killing three people: the judge presiding over his case, a court reporter and a deputy who confronted him as he escaped the courthouse.

The deputy from whom he stole the gun, Cynthia Hall, remained in critical condition Saturday.

He then allegedly pistolwhipped Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Don O'Briant and stole his car. Throughout Friday, police said they were looking for the reporter's green Honda Accord, and highway message boards across the state issued descriptions of the vehicle.

Fulton County Sheriff’s Sgt. Hoyt Teasley was shot and killed by the gunman.

But later that night, the car was found in the parking garage where Nichols stole it. Police said Nichols attempted more hijackings, and it was suspected that Nichols had stolen another vehicle from the same parking garage.

Surveillance tape showed him going to the garage's lowest level, wearing a jacket that CNN said belonged to O'Briant. Authorities would not comment on whether Wilhelm may have been carjacked at the garage.

Cynthia Hall, a sheriff's deputy, was critically wounded during the courthouse shooting.

Ned Cronan, 73, who lives across the street from where authorities found Wilhelm's body, said he got up three times during the night and looked out the window. The only sign of trouble he saw was a police car about 7 a.m.

Cronan said he's heard gunshots in the area before, but none Friday night or Saturday morning.

"I don't think they killed him there,'' he said.

O'Briant wrote in Saturday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he had just parked his car when a young man pulled beside him and asked for directions to a nearby mall. Before O'Briant could oblige, the man pulled a gun and said, "Give me your keys or I'll kill you,'' then told him to get in the trunk.

O'Briant refused and started to run.

"I figured it was better to be shot at while I was running than to just stand there and be executed,'' O'Briant wrote.

The man pistol whipped him as he tried to escape. O'Briant fell, but got up and ran again.

"I scrambled into the street, waiting for the shots to come, but they didn't come,'' he wrote. "I guess it just wasn't my day to die.''

On Friday, carloads of law enforcement officers in riot gear swarmed the buildings and parking lots surrounding the north Atlanta condominiums where Nichols once lived, residents said.

"I've just kept my doors locked,'' said James Spice, 18, whose home is around the corner. "I always lock up, but I'm just making sure. My mom called and told me to.''

At the state Capitol, just down the street from the site of the shooting, flags flew at half-staff as lawmakers prepared for a rare Saturday session. Legislative leaders had considered canceling their weekend "family day,'' after the shooting, but decided to go ahead with it. Speaker of House Glenn Richardson announced Nichols' arrest to lawmakers on the floor.

The killings came less than two weeks after a Chicago federal judge's husband and mother were slain in their home and set off a fresh round of worries about the safety of judges, prosecutors and others involved in the criminal justice system.

On Thursday, the judge and prosecutors in Nichols' case requested extra security after investigators found a shank - or homemade knife - fashioned from a doorknob in each of Nichols' shoes, prosecutor Gayle Abramson said.

District Attorney Paul Howard did not say what measures were taken to beef up security, but Assistant Police Chief Alan Dreher said no other officers assisted Hall with taking Nichols to court.

In the rape case, Nichols was accused of bursting into his ex-girlfriend's home, binding her with duct tape and sexually assaulting her over three days. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said Nichols brought a loaded machine gun into the home and a cooler with food in case he was hungry.

Nichols had been dating the woman for eight years, and she tried to break up with him after he got another woman pregnant, Hazen said. Though he is accused of imprisoning the woman and raping her, Hazen said his client claims she invited him over and they had consensual sex.

Nichols faced a possible life sentence if convicted in his retrial on charges of rape, sodomy, burglary, and false imprisonment, among others. His earlier trial was declared a mistrial on Monday when jurors voted 8-4 for acquittal.

"My guts tell me he faced a greater chance of conviction in the second trial,'' his attorney, Barry Hazen, told a local television station.

Shooting suspect Brian Nichols is taken into custody by police in this televison footage.

Prosecutor Gayle Abramson said she believes Nichols, who had been jailed since Aug. 23, was certain he would be convicted and was willing to kill to avoid it.

Hazen described his client as a "big, strong guy'' with a laid-back personality.

"Even the larger deputies I don't think would be any match for Brian Nichols,'' Hazen said.

Source: AP