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Lord Borg
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Joined: 27 May 2003
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Location: Vulcan Capital City, Vulcan
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 Fri Mar 11, 2005 7:13 pm Manhunt on for Georgia courthouse killer |
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Rape suspect allegedly kills judge, court reporter, deputy in Atlanta
ATLANTA - 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.
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. A spokesman for Howard's office said Abramson had been placed in protective custody after the phone call.
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.
�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. Authorites said he may have fled the state.
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.
�More security was ordered�
�The judge had a meeting and more security was ordered,� Howard said at a news conference.
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.�
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.
NBC's Dan Abrams, MSNBC.com's Kari Huus and The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
From MSNBC |
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Lord Borg
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Joined: 27 May 2003
Posts: 11214
Location: Vulcan Capital City, Vulcan
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| Fri Mar 11, 2005 7:26 pm |
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heres more from cnn, basicly says the same thing but may be a little easyier to read
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ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Three people were killed at a downtown courthouse Friday morning after a defendant overpowered a deputy on the way to court then shot a judge and court reporter before killing another deputy while fleeing the building, Atlanta police said.
A search for the suspect, identified by police as Brian Nichols, 33, was under way in Georgia and the neighboring states of Alabama, Tennessee and the Carolinas. Nichols is described as being a black male, 33 years old, about 6 feet, 1 inch tall and weighing 210 pounds.
"We're not going to rest until we have him in custody," said Atlanta Assistant Chief of Police Alan Dreher.
The shootings occurred about 9 a.m. as Nichols was being led into Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rowland W. Barnes' eighth-floor courtroom, Dreher said. Nichols was being retried on rape, false imprisonment and other charges after a first trial last week ended in a hung jury. The second trial began Monday.
Nichols -- who was in custody but was allowed to change from jail scrubs into street clothes, a normal occurrence when defendants face jurors -- apparently struggled with the deputy for the gun and overpowered her, police said.
Sources told CNN the initial overpowering occurred in an elevator.
There were conflicting reports over whether the deputy whose gun was taken was shot. Dreher said she was not, but Jeffrey Salamone, attending trauma surgeon at Grady Memorial Hospital, said she had a gunshot wound to the head.
Doctors at Grady Memorial Hospital said the deputy had a wound on her head consistent with a graze wound from a gunshot, but the bullet did not penetrate her head.
Salamone said she suffered a small bruise on her brain and some fractures around her face. She was in critical condition, but was expected to survive.
Once inside Barnes' courtroom, Nichols held people in the room at bay briefly before shooting Barnes and his court reporter -- both of whom died at the scene, police said.
Nichols then fled the building, where outside he shot a deputy in the abdomen, officials said. The deputy was pronounced dead at the hospital, Salamone said.
Authorities said Nichols tried to hijack at least three vehicles, ending up in a multilevel parking structure for Atlanta's Underground tourist area.
A witness told CNN Nichols took his tow truck at gunpoint outside the courthouse.
The gunman "told me to get out of the truck. I told him he can have the truck. And I walked away," Deronte Franklin said.
A few blocks away, a reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was beaten and his Honda Accord stolen from a parking garage. Don O'Briant said a man pulled up in an SUV and asked for directions before he pulled a gun, told O'Briant to give up his car keys and get in the trunk of the car.
"I turned to run, and that's when he hit me in the head with his gun," O'Briant said.
Signs over Atlanta highways said police were looking for a green Honda Accord with a Georgia license plate 6584YN.
Atlanta police said they have set up a tip line at 404-730-7983 and 404-730-7984.
Courthouse security
Some said the shooting was predictable given the security lapses at the courthouse.
"The security in the Fulton County Courthouse, the way they deal with prisoners, is absolutely atrocious," attorney Dennis Scheib told CNN. "I said this was going to happen."
Scheib said deputies outside the courthouse told him that a knife-like weapon was discovered in Nichols' boot last week.
Fulton County State Court Judge Craig Schwall, however, described security at the courthouse as "phenomenal." Judges have their own private elevator, accessible only by key card, he said. Their chambers are heavily secured, he said, and they and other court officials have their own secure parking garage.
"I think that, as public servants, we all have to be mindful of these risks," Schwall said.
Well-respected judge
Barnes was "extremely highly thought of in the legal community," attorney B.J. Bernstein told CNN. The judge presided over both civil and criminal cases.
"The only thing I can imagine is that someone would have had to have moved very quickly and suddenly to catch one of the deputies off guard in order to remove his weapon," she said.
Barnes heard the case of Dany Heatley of the Atlanta Thrashers, who lost control of his Ferrari and drove into a brick-and-concrete post while driving in the city in September 2003. His passenger, Dan Snyder, 25, was critically injured and died a few days later. Heatley pleaded guilty to charges including second-degree vehicular homicide and speeding.
Last month, Barnes made headlines when he ordered a 34-year-old woman, who had seven children and pleaded guilty to killing the eighth, a newborn, to undergo sterilization.
He was a vocal advocate of Fulton County's supervised rehabilitation clinics, an alternative for jail for repeat offenders with drug addictions. Barnes touted the program for its cost-effectiveness.
A juror in Nichols' trial told CNN that Barnes was kind, and said Nichols always seemed to be respectful to him.
The juror said Nichols made the jury nervous by staring at them.
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well this guy just made a life commitment to jail eh?
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Theresa
Lux Mihi Deus
Joined: 17 Jun 2001
Posts: 27256
Location: United States of America
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| Fri Mar 11, 2005 7:45 pm |
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Or a three minute commitment to an electric chair...
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Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with our scars
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Lord Borg
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Joined: 27 May 2003
Posts: 11214
Location: Vulcan Capital City, Vulcan
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| Fri Mar 11, 2005 7:54 pm |
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yeah the exacution most likly its auto when you kill a judge
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Leo Wyatt
Sweetest Angel
Joined: 25 Feb 2004
Posts: 19045
Location: Investigating A Crime Scene. What did Quark do this time?
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| Fri Mar 11, 2005 7:55 pm |
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I hope they catch em
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Lord Borg
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Joined: 27 May 2003
Posts: 11214
Location: Vulcan Capital City, Vulcan
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| Fri Mar 11, 2005 8:02 pm |
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Im sure they will all amjor roads are being watched
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Leo Wyatt
Sweetest Angel
Joined: 25 Feb 2004
Posts: 19045
Location: Investigating A Crime Scene. What did Quark do this time?
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| Fri Mar 11, 2005 8:21 pm |
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My friend said they was having checks in Hinesville Ga. Checking people out. I live on fort Stewart Ga so word gets around quick here.
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Theresa
Lux Mihi Deus
Joined: 17 Jun 2001
Posts: 27256
Location: United States of America
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| Fri Mar 11, 2005 10:12 pm |
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LINK
-------signature-------
Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with our scars
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Lord Borg
Fleet Admiral
Joined: 27 May 2003
Posts: 11214
Location: Vulcan Capital City, Vulcan
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| Fri Mar 11, 2005 10:19 pm |
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(This is an update, but enought for new news)
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Georgia courthouse killer evades manhunt
Man who allegedly kills judge, 2 others apparently planned attack
ATLANTA - Brian Nichols appeared to have been plotting violence the day before he allegedly went on a rampage during his rape trial Friday.
Authorities said Nichols sharpened parts of a doorknob into dangerous weapons and showed up to court Thursday with the objects in his shoes, prompting the judge and prosecutors to request extra security.
But police say Nichols found another way to carry out his attack. The 33-year-old former computer technician allegedly overpowered a sheriff’s deputy leading him to court and stole her gun, then killed the judge and two other people. Authorities said he then pistol-whipped a newspaper reporter, stole his car and fled, setting off a massive manhunt.
Hundreds of officers in cruisers and helicopters swarmed the area in search of Nichols, who had been on trial for rape, burglary and other charges stemming from an August incident involving an ex-girlfriend.
$60,000 reward offered
Neither Nichols nor the car in which he escaped had been found, Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington said at a 9:30 p.m. ET news conference. Pennington said a reward of $60,000 was offered for information leading to Nichols' capture. He said two tip lines would be staffed round-the-clock: (404) 730-7983 and (404) 730-7984.
The rampage led to chaos around the city, with schools, restaurants and office buildings locking down amid fears that the suspect might strike again. Nichols’ mug shot was plastered all over TV screens, and highway message boards issued descriptions of the stolen vehicle.
“Mr. Nichols is considered armed and extremely dangerous and should not be approached,” Fulton County Sheriff Myron Freeman said. “We are not going to rest until we find him.”
Nichols got the gun by overpowering the female deputy while he was being led down a corridor in the Fulton County Courthouse, Assistant Police Chief Alan Dreher said. After shooting the deputy in the face, the suspect then went to the courtroom, held about a dozen people at bay for a short time and shot and killed the judge and a court reporter, he said.
Path of destruction
Another deputy was later killed outside the Atlanta courthouse when he confronted the suspect, Dreher said. The deputy shot while leading Nichols to court survived. Hospital officials said she was in critical condition with facial fractures and a gunshot wound to the head but was expected to live.
Authorities said Nichols then carjacked the newspaper reporter’s green 1997 Honda Accord in a parking garage and sped away. Authorities were searching for the car, with Georgia license plate no. 6584-YN.
“When he had the gun in my face, you start to think, ‘How can I stay alive?’ I thought this was a routine carjack. I didn’t know two other people were killed,” said Don O’Briant, a features writer for the paper.
Witnesses reported the suspect carrying out a series of carjackings before that; a police spokesman would only say he attempted to commandeer at least one other vehicle.
Chief Pennington said the car had not been found but said authorities suspect Nichols is still using the car though he may have changed the license plate.
t. Gov. Mark Taylor confirmed that Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes and his court reporter were among the dead.
Fulton County Sheriff Myron Freeman said the extra security that was requested by the prosecutor’s office following the shank discovery was provided. He refused to elaborate.
Dreher said that there were no other officers other than the female deputy assisting with taking Nichols to court. The law requires that defendants on trial not be handcuffed as they enter the courtroom, to make sure the sight of cuffs doesn’t unfairly influence the jury.
New death threat
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 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.”
Rape case was winding up
The shootings occurred shortly after 9 a.m. Friday — the fourth day of Nichols’ trial. Nichols had been facing a re-trial on charges of rape, sodomy, burglary and false imprisonment, among others, after his earlier trial ended in a hung jury a week ago.
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.
“I think he probably realized ... he might be convicted this time, he might not have a chance to walk out,” Howard said. “We believe he came here with the intent to make sure that didn’t happen.”
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. Howard said Nichols brought a loaded machine gun into the home and a cooler with food in case he was hungry.
Nichols, who had been jailed for the last six months, had faced a possible life prison sentence if convicted for rape.
Nichols’ last known job was working as a computer technician for a subsidiary of Atlanta-based shipping giant UPS. Company spokesman Norm Black says Nichols joined the unit in March 2004 and left in September 2004, which was when he was arrested.
James Bailey, a juror at Nichols’ trial, said the jury was not in the courtroom at the time of the shooting. He said Nichols had made him and other jurors nervous. “Every time he looked up, he was staring at you,” Bailey said.
Few leads
More than 100 state troopers and officers from several agencies, including the FBI, were assisting in the search, but there were few leads, said G.D. Stiles, a Fulton County deputy chief. Offers of help from officers on their days off were pouring in.
District Attorney Howard told MSNBC that the manhunt covered several Atlanta metro-area counties, though some officials said he may have fled the state.
Telephone and e-mail requests for comment to Nichols’ attorney, Barry M. Hazen, were not immediately returned Friday.
Barnes was known for his personable approach to justice and his sense of humor, and members of Georgia’s legal community expressed shock at the news.
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.
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.
Source: MSNBC |
-------signature-------
When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears
And I held your hand through all of these years
But you still have
All of me
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Lord Borg
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Joined: 27 May 2003
Posts: 11214
Location: Vulcan Capital City, Vulcan
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| Sat Mar 12, 2005 12:49 am |
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Update:
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Car stolen by suspect found near where judge, 2 others killed
thanks to msnbc |
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Republican_Man
STV's Premier Conservative
Joined: 26 Mar 2004
Posts: 14823
Location: Classified
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| Sat Mar 12, 2005 12:50 am |
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| Theresa wrote: | | Or a three minute commitment to an electric chair... |
I think that's an appropriate punishment...
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"Rights are only as good as the willingness of some to exercise responsibility for those rights- Fmr. Colorado Senate Pres. John Andrews
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Lord Borg
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Joined: 27 May 2003
Posts: 11214
Location: Vulcan Capital City, Vulcan
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| Sat Mar 12, 2005 1:24 am |
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an actual update on the cars findings from cnn.com on the finding of the car
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Suspect's car found in downtown Atlanta
Defendant overpowers deputy, kills three at courthouse
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Atlanta police said late Friday night they have found the car believed stolen by Brian Nichols, the suspect accused of gunning down a popular judge, his court reporter and a deputy that morning.
Police were led to the 1997 green Honda Accord in a parking garage in downtown Atlanta about 11 p.m., police said.
The Honda was parked in the same garage where a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was struck and his car stolen.
Friday morning, Nichols overpowered a deputy on the way to court, then shot Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rowland W. Barnes and court reporter Julie Ann Brandau before killing another deputy while fleeing the building, Atlanta police said.
A search for Nichols is under way in Georgia and the neighboring states of Alabama, Tennessee and the Carolinas. He is described as being a black male, 33 years old, about 6 feet, 1 inch tall and weighing 210 pounds.
"We're not going to rest until we have him in custody," said Atlanta Assistant Chief of Police Alan Dreher.
The shootings occurred about 9 a.m. as Nichols was being led into Barnes' eighth-floor courtroom, Dreher said. Nichols was being retried on rape, false imprisonment and other charges after a first trial last week ended in a hung jury. The second trial began Monday.
Nichols -- who was in custody but was allowed to change from jail scrubs into street clothes, a normal occurrence when defendants face jurors -- apparently struggled with the deputy for the gun and overpowered her, police said.
Sources told CNN the initial overpowering occurred in an elevator.
Jeffrey Salamone, attending trauma surgeon at Grady Memorial Hospital, said the deputy escorting Nichols suffered injuries consistent with a graze wound from a gunshot.
Salamone said Cynthia Hall suffered a small bruise on her brain and some fractures around her face. She was in critical condition, but was expected to survive.
Once inside Barnes' courtroom, Nichols held people in the room at bay briefly before shooting Barnes and Brandau -- both of whom died at the scene, police said.
Nichols then fled the building, where outside he shot Sgt. Hoyt Teasley in the abdomen, officials said. The sheriff's deputy was pronounced dead at the hospital, Salamone said.
Authorities said Nichols carjacked at least five vehicles, the last being the green Honda Accord.
A witness told CNN Nichols took his tow truck at gunpoint near the courthouse.
The gunman "told me to get out of the truck. I told him he can have the truck. And I walked away," Deronta Franklin said.
A few blocks away, a reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was assaulted for his Honda Accord in the parking garage. Don O'Briant said a man pulled up in an SUV and asked for directions before he pulled a gun, told O'Briant to give up his car keys and get in the trunk of the car.
"I turned to run, and that's when he hit me in the head with his gun," O'Briant said.
Atlanta police said they have set up a tip line at 404-730-7983 and 404-730-7984.
Law enforcement officials are offering rewards totaling $65,000 in the case.
Courthouse security
Some said the shooting was predictable given the security lapses at the courthouse.
"The security in the Fulton County Courthouse, the way they deal with prisoners, is absolutely atrocious," attorney Dennis Scheib told CNN. "I said this was going to happen."
Scheib said deputies outside the courthouse told him that a knife-like weapon was discovered in Nichols' boot last week.
Fulton County State Court Judge Craig Schwall, however, described security at the courthouse as "phenomenal." Judges have their own private elevator, accessible only by key card, he said. Their chambers are heavily secured, he said, and they and other court officials have their own secure parking garage.
"I think that, as public servants, we all have to be mindful of these risks," Schwall said.
Well-respected judge
Barnes was "extremely highly thought of in the legal community," attorney B.J. Bernstein told CNN. The judge presided over both civil and criminal cases.
"The only thing I can imagine is that someone would have had to have moved very quickly and suddenly to catch one of the deputies off guard in order to remove his weapon," she said.
Barnes heard the case of Dany Heatley of the Atlanta Thrashers, who lost control of his Ferrari and drove into a brick-and-concrete post while driving in the city in September 2003. His passenger, Dan Snyder, 25, was critically injured and died a few days later. Heatley pleaded guilty to charges including second-degree vehicular homicide and speeding.
Last month, Barnes made headlines when he ordered a 34-year-old woman, who had seven children and pleaded guilty to killing the eighth, a newborn, to undergo sterilization.
He was a vocal advocate of Fulton County's supervised rehabilitation clinics, an alternative for jail for repeat offenders with drug addictions. Barnes touted the program for its cost-effectiveness.
A juror in Nichols' trial told CNN that Barnes was kind, and said Nichols always seemed to be respectful to him.
The juror said Nichols made the jury nervous by staring at them.
from: www.cnn.com |
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Lord Borg
Fleet Admiral
Joined: 27 May 2003
Posts: 11214
Location: Vulcan Capital City, Vulcan
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| Sat Mar 12, 2005 1:12 pm |
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| Quote: |
Suspect caught in Atlanta courtroom slayings
Fatal shooting of U.S. customs agent likely linked to triple murders
ATLANTA - Courthouse slayings suspect Brian Nichols was apprehended at a suburban Atlanta apartment complex Saturday nearly 26 hours after a judge and two others were shot to death at a downtown courthouse, said an officer with the Atlanta Police Department.
"He is in custody," said Sgt. Terry Joyner.
The arrest was made after Nichols was cornered at the complex, said another officer who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A black sports utility vehicle, escorted by multiple police cars with lights flashing and sirens on, left the complex at about 11:45 a.m. A crowd of people across the street began cheering as the motorcade passed.
Earlier Saturday, a U.S. customs agent was discovered shot to death in north Atlanta, and his blue pickup truck, pistol and badge were missing.
The body of agent David Wilhelm was found near Lennox Square Mall, an area where the suspect used to live, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told NBC News.
The agent's missing vehicle was a 1997 blue Chevy pickup with Georgia license plate: APG-6121, WXIA TV reported. The same truck was apparently found at the scene where Nichols was apprehended, CNN reported.
No further information regarding the arrest was immediately available.
Courtroom slayings
Nichols, 33, was suspected of killing a judge and two other people at a downtown courthouse Friday, then stealing a reporter's car. He apparently never took the reporter's green Honda Accord from the parking garage where he stole it and attempted more hijackings afterward, police said.
Atlanta police spokesman John Quigley said early Saturday that authorities were reviewing surveillance tapes "to see what leads we can develop from that." One of those tapes came from CNN security cameras in the parking garage where the carjacking took place.
The photos show a black man resembling Nichols donning a jacket that CNN said belonged to Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Don O'Briant.
Nichols beat O'Briant and demanded his car after fleeing the courthouse, where he fatally shot a judge, a court reporter and deputy sheriff with a gun he stole from another deputy sheriff, Cynthia Hall. She remained in critical condition Saturday.
�Give me your keys or I�ll kill you�
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."
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.
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
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.
Judges' safety questioned
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.
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.
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Lord Borg
Fleet Admiral
Joined: 27 May 2003
Posts: 11214
Location: Vulcan Capital City, Vulcan
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| Sat Mar 12, 2005 1:18 pm |
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heres a rewrite i found while posting the previous, so it may sound the ame in some areas
| Quote: |
Police catch suspect in triple courtroom slayings
Ga. man also linked to U.S. agent's murder had woman hostage
DULUTH, GA. - A man accused of killing three people at a courthouse was captured Saturday after taking a woman hostage at an apartment complex and was a suspect in the fatal shooting of an immigration agent hours earlier, officials said.
�Brian Nichols is in custody. He turned himself in without incident. Everybody is safe,� said Officer Darren Moloney of the Gwinnett County Police Department.
Moloney said Nichols was armed and had a female hostage when he was caught. The woman was not identified by authorities, and it was unclear what relationship she had with Nichols.
Nichols, 33, was taken into federal custody. 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 body of agent David Wilhelm was found near Lennox Square Mall, an area where Nichols used to live, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told NBC News. Wilhelm's truck, pistol and badge were missing.
The agent's missing vehicle was a 1997 blue Chevy pickup with Georgia license plate: APG-6121, NBC affiliate WXIA TV reported. The same truck was apparently found at the scene where Nichols was apprehended, CNN reported.
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.
Massive manhunt
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.
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.
'Give me your keys or I�ll kill you'
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.
Judges' safety questioned
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.
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.
from: MSNBC |
Again some is the same, because of the artical contents being changed when i Posted the previous
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Republican_Man
STV's Premier Conservative
Joined: 26 Mar 2004
Posts: 14823
Location: Classified
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| Sat Mar 12, 2005 4:32 pm |
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Good news. The evil man has been caught, eh? 
-------signature-------
"Rights are only as good as the willingness of some to exercise responsibility for those rights- Fmr. Colorado Senate Pres. John Andrews
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Lord Borg
Fleet Admiral
Joined: 27 May 2003
Posts: 11214
Location: Vulcan Capital City, Vulcan
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| Sat Mar 12, 2005 4:54 pm |
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Yeah they caught him this morining
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Jemah
Lieutenant
Joined: 04 Mar 2005
Posts: 209
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| Sat Mar 12, 2005 5:33 pm |
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he and i were chillin' when he was busted. it was crazy. @_@
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Theresa
Lux Mihi Deus
Joined: 17 Jun 2001
Posts: 27256
Location: United States of America
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| Sat Mar 12, 2005 5:47 pm |
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| Jemah wrote: | | he and i were chillin' when he was busted. it was crazy. @_@ |
If you want to be warned, or banned, just PM me and save the mess, ok? This is clearly not an acceptable post.
-------signature-------
Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with our scars
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Puck
The Texan
Joined: 05 Jan 2004
Posts: 5596
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| Sun Mar 13, 2005 12:05 am |
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| Republican_Man wrote: | | Good news. The evil man has been caught, eh? |
*POKE!*
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