http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e ... e_shooting

Three Shot to Death at Ga. Courthouse

12 minutes ago

By HARRY WEBER, Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA - A judge presiding over a rape trial was shot to death Friday along with two other people at the Fulton County Courthouse, authorities said. A fourth person was wounded and a search was under way for the suspect, the defendant in the trial. Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor confirmed that Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes and his court reporter were killed. He gave no other details in announcing the deaths in the state Senate. A deputy died later at a hospital, while a second deputy had minor wounds, police said.

The judge was shot on the eighth floor of the courthouse, while one deputy was shot on a street corner just outside the building, said Officer Alan Osborne with the Atlanta Police Department.

Witnesses said the gunman carjacked a car and authorities were searching for a green Honda Accord that was hijacked 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 and other charges stemming from an incident in August. It was not immediately known how the suspect got a gun.

"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.

A sheriff's deputy died at Grady Hospital and a second was being treated for graze wounds, police Sgt. John Quigley said.

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

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newsroom staff was 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.

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.

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 handled by Barnes was the fatal 2003 car wreck by hockey star Dany Heatley that killed his 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.

Jesus. What the fuck, man? It's nice to see in this day and age of terrorism, and all the money that's gone into Homeland Security, that one nut can still get a gun into a courthouse and do something like this. And is it open season on judges all of a sudden or what?

what's highland security?

That's Towelie's weed protectors.

It has not been confirmed, but I think the suspect got the gun from one of the deputies in the courtroom.

It's Bush's fault anyway.

Yeah, that's what I said.

hopefully GA has the death penalty, and this one gets done quickly.....


unless of course you wimps think this guy was just having a bad day and can be rehabbed

This guy killed a cop. If I were him, I wouldn't be hiding out anywhere NOT in public view if I didn't want to have the death penalty imposed upon me before I ever get to see the inside of a police station.

If only they had put up a Ten Commandments monument, the gunman would have known not to kill anyone or steal a car in which to make his getaway.

at the moment they have found the guy on the highways, not sure if they are still in Ga or not, but as far as the death penalty goes, after this dude killed a judge and 2 cops already, i dont expect him to make it to jail. my guess is that if he killed 3 people and escaped from court to keep from going to jail on a rape charge, then he isnt going to go willingly on this, so it wouldnt suprise me if it ends in more gunfire, and this guy dead.

Did you have anything pertinent to add to the conversation? I suggest you stay out if you don't.

Oh really!

Exactly.

Imagine if this asshole was under 18. There'd be no chance of the death penalty. He'd be given a free ride in prison for the rest of his life, courtesy of the U.S. tax payers.

personally I'm hoping this waste of oxygen does himself or lets deputies do it. No need to waste further court time and taxpayer money on this idiot. It's just too bad he wasn't aborted in the first place. Clearly that's his decision anyway, it's just unfortunate he decided to take 3 lives first. The first bullet should have been in his own head.

Wouldn't it be great to live in prison for free? For the rest of your life? Awesome!

yeah but the problem with homeland security is that you need to be an arab to be considered a terrorist..all the money to prevent terrorism is going overseas when we need it right here for our "own" to be stopped

This is news to me. Source please?

For what it's worth, this is the same judge that ordered that woman with 7 kids be sterilized about ago. I think there was a thread about it here, if I'm not mistaken.

By the way, what the hell does this incident have anything to do with homeland security? This is like blaming a drive-by-shooting in Detroit on Tom Ridge.

It's a government facility dude. One would like to think it would be a little more difficult to pull something like this off considering the amount of money and effort put into combating terrorism. But like someone said, perhaps this would only have been prevented if he was an Arab.