This just in-- Atlanta Judge, others killed by rape suspect

[Stickjockey]

The article:

Manhunt on for Georgia courthouse killer
Rape suspect allegedly kills judge, court reporter, deputy in Atlanta

Reuters
Brian Nichols, 33, is shown in a photo distributed Friday by police. free video


















1/82/83/84/85/86/87/88/8



• DA: Suspect is 'dangerous'
March 11: Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard Jr. calls courthouse shooting suspect Brian Nichols "a dangerous individual."

MSNBC


• Carjacked reporter talks
March 11: Atlanta Constitution reporter Don O'Briant talks about how he was beaten by the courthouse shooting suspect and carjacked outside the courthouse.

MSNBC


• Reporter beaten, carjacked
March 11: Megan Considine of the Atlanta Constitution talks about one of their reporter's violent encounter with the suspect in the courthouse shooting, with MSNBC-TV's Lisa Daniels.

MSNBC


• Suspect used deputy’s gun
March 11: The suspect in the Atlanta courthouse shooting was in custody and apparently "overwhelmed" a sheriff's deputy, before killing three people, says Atlanta Deputy Chief Alan Dreher.

MSNBC


• 'A very sad day'
March 11: Fulton County Sheriff Myron Freeman and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue comment on the shooting at a courthouse in Atlanta, leaving three dead and one wounded.

MSNBC


• Manhunt for courthouse shooter
March 11: A judge was shot to death along with two other people at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. NBC's Don Teague reports that a search is under way for the suspect.

MSNBC


• Shooting analysis
March 11: Former FBI profiler and MSNBC analyst Clint Van Zandt discusses the shooting in an Atlanta courtroom.

MSNBC


• Witness describes shooting scene
March 11: A witness describes the scene at an Atlanta courthouse where a man shot and killed three people.

MSNBC




NBC, MSNBC and news services
Updated: 7:25 p.m. ET March 11, 2005ATLANTA - A man on trial for rape grabbed a deputy’s gun and opened fire at an Atlanta courthouse on Friday, killing a judge and two other people before escaping and triggering a manhunt that ranged across several Southeastern states.

advertisement

The suspect, 33-year-old Brian Nichols, went on the rampage despite added security ordered when he was found carrying homemade weapons a day earlier, District Attorney Paul Howard Jr. said.

Killed in the shooting were Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, his court reporter and a Fulton County deputy who confronted the gunman outside the courthouse and was shot.

The female deputy who was overpowered by Nichols while transporting him from a courthouse detention center to the courtroom was hospitalized in critical condition with facial fractures and a gunshot wound to the head but was expected to live, hospital officials said.

Late Friday afternoon, a caller to the district attorney's office who appeared to be Nichols, according to office staffers, threatened the life of Gail Abramson, the assistant district attorney who was handling his case.

Speaking to NBC's Dan Abrams Friday afternoon, Howard said that authorities were checking into the call, trying to determine whether or not it was a hoax, but Howard added, "Based on what we have seen today, (Nichols) certainly is capable of it."

Howard said he and his family, Abramson and her family and the alleged rape victim and her family were all in protective custody.

Speaking of Abramson, Howard said: “I think she’s in shock.â€

Searching for green Accord
Authorities were searching for a green Honda Accord — with Georgia license plate no. 6584-YN — that was stolen from a newspaper reporter who was pistol-whipped in a parking garage.

Click for related content
Killings fan judges' fears
Friends, family mourn slain judge
Preventing courtroom violence an elusive task




“Mr. Nichols is considered armed and extremely dangerous and should not be approached. ... We are not going to rest until we find him,†Sheriff Myron Freeman said at a midafternoon briefing. Authorities said he may have fled the state.

Howard told MSNBC that the manhunt covered several Atlanta metro-area counties.

The suspect got the gun by overpowering a sheriff’s deputy while he was being escorted within the courthouse, Assistant Police Chief Alan Dreher said. He then went to the courtroom, held about a dozen people there at bay for a short time and then shot and killed the judge and court reporter, he said.

“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.

The gunman then ran down eight flights of stairs before fatally shooting the deputy outside the courthouse.

Howard, the district attorney, said the shootout occurred even though Nichols had been found with “shanks†— homemade metal weapons — hidden in his shoes on Thursday as he was being taken from the courthouse to the Fulton County Jail.

 

[Stickjockey]

Part 2:

‘More security was ordered’
“The judge had a meeting and more security was ordered,†Howard said at a news conference.

advertisement

Despite the added security in the courtroom, Nichols apparently was being escorted to the courtroom by a single deputy when he made his violent break.

Howard said Nichols apparently felt that his retrial on rape and other charges stemming from an incident in August 2004 was going badly and that he was likely to be sent to prison for years.

“He actually said to Gail (Abramson, the assistant district attorney who was handling the rape case), ‘You’re doing a better job this time,†Howard said. “… We believe he came (to court) with the intent of making sure that didn’t happen.â€

The call threatening Abramson came after the news conference, which she attended.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Don O’Briant, a features reporter for the paper, was the person beaten by the suspect and carjacked outside the courthouse. O’Briant said in an interview after he was released from the hospital Friday afternoon that the suspect put a gun to his head and wanted him to get into the car’s trunk; he refused and the suspect took off in his car.

Judges locked in office
All the judges in the building were locked in their chambers. The courthouse and other buildings in downtown Atlanta were on lockdown. Schools around the area were also put on lockdown.

Traffic in the blocks surrounding the courthouse was backed up as police cruisers flooded the area.

James Bailey, a juror at Nichols’ trial, said the jury was not in the courtroom at the time of the shooting. Bailey said Nichols had made him and other jurors nervous. “Every time he looked up, he was staring at you,†Bailey said. He said Barnes was the presiding judge.

Barnes was named to the Fulton County Superior Court bench in 1998.

Among cases he handled was the fatal 2003 car wreck by hockey star Dany Heatley that killed 25-year-old teammate Dan Snyder. Heatley pleaded guilty and was sentenced Feb. 4 to three years on probation and ordered to give 150 speeches about the dangers of speeding.

Barnes, 64, also drew 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 undergo a medical procedure that would prevent her from having more children.

The shooting happened 11 days after the husband and elderly mother of a federal judge in Chicago were shot to death in her home. A man whose medical malpractice lawsuit was dismissed by the judge committed suicide and left a note saying he was the killer. Police said Friday that a DNA sample from the man matched the one recovered from a cigarette butt found at the crime scene, indicating he was in fact the killer.

 

[sumpnz]

Too bad there wasn't a citizen CCW at the scene. It might have had at least a chance of being stopped before so many people were hurt had someone been packing (and allowed into the courthouse).

 

[Greg L]

No offense Stickjockey but did you really think that a story this big/widely publicized nationally would escape everyone's attention all day long?

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=129522

 

[Stickjockey]

Oops. I searched for it, really I did.

 

[pax]

Closed as a duplicate.

No biggie, and am not ragging on on the thread starter at all, but just leaving a tip for others: when you've got a news story to put up, please use the search function for keywords in the story before posting it. As Stickjockey just found out, it doesn't always work to run your eye down the forum looking for the same headline because maybe the person who posted the first article didn't use the same headline.

pax