ATLANTA, March 11 -- A defendant in a rape case shot and killed a judge, a court reporter and a sheriff's deputy Friday before fleeing a downtown courthouse and escaping in a stolen car, police said. Another deputy was critically wounded.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rowland W. Barnes was shot after the defendant, Brian Nichols, 33, overpowered a female deputy who was escorting him to his trial in the Fulton County Courthouse, according to authorities. Nichols injured the deputy in the struggle and grabbed her gun, then went into the eighth-floor courtroom and briefly held more than a dozen people inside hostage before opening fire, police said. In addition to Barnes, court reporter Julie Brandau was killed.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes speaks during a hearing on Feb. 6, 2005.
(AP File Photo)
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A doctor initially reported that the woman deputy, whose name has not yet been released, was shot in the face and was in critical condition. But Atlanta's deputy chief of police, Alan Dreher, later told reporters that the deputy suffered injuries, but not from a bullet.
After running out the building's main entrance, Nichols fatally shot another deputy who was pursuing him, then commandeered a vehicle from a parking garage and fled the scene, authorities and witnesses said. The defendant also carjacked at least one other vehicle -- belonging to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter -- in making his escape. The reporter, Don O'Briant, said the suspect pistol-whipped him and drove away in his green Honda Accord.
"It appears that he committed several others crimes as he was making good his escape," Dreher said.
Brian Nichols, in a photo released by law enforcement officials, is suspected by police of shooting several people in Atlanta early Friday. (AP)
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Dreher indicated that the female deputy was escorting Nichols by herself to his trial when she was overpowered. Attorneys who work at the courthouse criticized the security there as lax. Dreher declined to comment on the security, referring questions about it to the sheriff's department.
But later, Fulton County District Attorney Paul L. Howard Jr. said concerns had been raised about Nichols. On Wednesday night as Nichols returned to jail from the trial, security officials found that he had two hand-made knives, called shanks, hidden in his socks. Howard and the attorney prosecuting Nichols, Gayle Abramson, said the judge requested extra deputies in the courtroom following that discovery and that they had been present Thursday. Abramson, who said Nichols was cocky but had not shown any signs of violence, had not yet reached the courtroom when the shooting occurred Friday.
A surgeon at Grady Hospital, Jeffrey Salomone, said the male deputy was brought there with a single gunshot wound to the abdomen. "He had no vital signs when he arrived" and was pronounced dead a few minutes later, Salomone told a press briefing.
He said the woman deputy "is in critical condition but is expected to survive."
Fulton County Sheriff Myron E. Freeman said he was withholding the names of the victims until relatives were notified.
He said the suspect is "currently at large" and is considered armed and dangerous. Exactly how he obtained the weapon is "still under investigation," Freeman said.
"This is a very sad day in Fulton County," he said. "But we're going to do everything we can to bring this person to justice. . . . We're not going to rest until we find him."
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) told the same press briefing that "all of our state assets are available to Fulton County" to apprehend the suspect.
Authorities quickly sealed off a large section of downtown Atlanta and launched a manhunt for Nichols, who was described by attorneys familiar with his case as violent and disturbed.
