Am I the only one who, besides feeling aghast at what he did, read MLK and can't get Chris Rock out of my head? Maybe he ran out the emergency exit and called a friend. "I need you to come pick me up." "Yeah, where you at?" "I'm on MLK..." "RUN!!! RUN!!!"

SkyDog, please catch this guy already.

If I'm Nichols, and a guy who's seen me and has a description of my vehicle gets away, I'm probably going to look for another vehicle immediately, but park the previous one somewhere else in the garage so as to throw the police off my trail.

I figure that's what happened here. It's a little astonishing that it took the police 15 hours to think of the same thing, but in the confusion it doesn't surprise me TOO much.

That said, CNN.com is reporting that Judge Barnes was the same judge who ordered sterilization for that lady who had 7 kids and then killed (drowned?) her 8th a while back. Not that that's relevant, I just found it interesting.

lol

"Martin Luther King stood for peace. What is Martin Luther King now? A street. I don't care where you are in America if you are on MLK there's some violence going down."

Shaken baby syndrome. It was a plea agreement she agreed to, and this judge allowed it.

Oh, I'm not passing judgment on the sentence involved. Just saying that I found it interesting that the judge should be involved in three fairly high-profile headlines so close together (the dead child, Heatley, and now this).

I guess bad things really do come in threes.

Man Jack Bauer would have caught this guy by now.. Hell Sledge Hammer would have caught this guy by now.

This guy is probably out of the state by now

If nothing else, this is becoming beyond humiliating for the Atlanta police force.

First, the courthouse leaves one female deputy to guard an unshackled defendant facing life in prison for an extremely violent crime.

And now, they don't seem to understand that this guy has some intelligence, and knew not to travel far by daylight on foot or in a car known to be stolen. They should have sensed the pattern and scoured local garages for the Honda first. Hard to believe it took them more than 12 hours to find the Honda.

My biggest worry is that when he ditched the Honda, his next carjacking victim did go into the trunk (willingly or dead). The Keystone Kops don't have a chance.

I agree, this is looking pretty bad for the Atlanta police force.

A couple things caught my attention in particular. "We have over 100 officers working this case." That's all they can spare?! I realize there are cost issues involved, but there's a dangerous gunman on the loose! Obviously he's not the only criminal running around Atlanta, but this is SO high-profile and a matter of civic duty.

Second, "We will work this case day and night until he is apprehended." I realize there's not much you can say here, but...."DUH".

Considering this along with the Montgomery County sniper attacks a year ago - doesn't it seem a lot easier to slip through the cracks and blend in with society than previously thought?

The problem is...they had this guy. I know there are many modes of transportation in that area, but the longer this goes on, the better the chance that it'll be some off-duty policeman at a Dunkin Donuts in Nowhere, New Mexico that finally locates this guy.

CNN is reporting that the car in the garage was found by Joe Random citizen, not the cops. So the police apparently didn't look, despite reports of the fugitive carjacking a tow truck nearby.

Wow. That's sad.

This is truly unbelievable. For the car to be in the same parking lot, and for them not to find it, but instead put out an APB for that car based on the ALC reporter's comments, is simply stunning. Did the reporter (or anyone?) see him drive out of the parking lot in that car? I bet not!

He must have someone as a hostage (or dead), because someone would have come forward and said their car was stolen/carjacked, etc., and they know a car crashed through a barrier to exit.

"The garage's lower level exit gate, used only by parkers with monthly passes, was broken and detectives told CNN they believe Nichols crashed through it after taking another car on that level.

But they have not ruled out the possibility that he may have walked out of the garage."


You would think, given all that's occurred, that someone would have been reported missing. Maybe he just stole a car...

CNN and MSNBC are reporting that an off-duty customs officer was shot and killed in Nicholls neighborhood, the truck was stolen along with his gun and ammo.

Yeah, but Hammer would have nuked the entire city in the process.

What an embarassment. This is the same police force that is infamous with me for :

(1) conducting a raid on an "adult entertainment" store and carrying out dildos and vibrators
(2) an Atlanta PD officer, standing next to me on the sidewalk, laughing when a pedestrian was almost ran down on West Peachtree ST
(3) refusing to show up to a car break-in where multiple items were ripped off and blood from the perpetrator was on the scene

If this lone individual can discombobulate the entire city's police force, I hate to think about what would happen if someone was really out to do some damage to a lot of people. They beat people trying to pick up family at the airport, but they have a 51 year old grandmother guarding a prisoner.

Yep...really, you would think that terrorists could take this line of action - they wouldn't need explosive, just guns (and Nichols started w/o even that), and if there were say, 5 or 10 of them rather than just 1...

Nichols has been caught in Gwinnett county at the home of a friend.

They are also reporting a pick-up truck fitting the discription of the one stolen from the Customs agent is in the parking lot. Might be another truck, but it matches the physical discription.

WOOO!!

That's good news! Way to go ATL police!

It was Gwinnett SWAT. :D

Fixed.

They are reporting he is in Federal custody. That suggests that he is strong suspect on the Federal agent murder.

The AJC says it was the Customs Agent's pickup truck that tip police off. He got one more before finally going down.

Suspect captured at Gwinnett apartment complex
> Judge, deputy, court reporter slain at courthouse

> By CAMERON McWHIRTER, STEVE VISSER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
> Published on: 03/12/05
Fugitive Brian G. Nichols was taken into custody about 11:30 this morning at an apartment complex in Gwinnett County, according to Gwinnett police. Police surrounded an apartment in the Bridgewater apartments, on Satellite Boulevard, near the Gwinnett Place Mall. After a brief standoff, he was arrested.

Police were alerted to the area because the blue pickup truck of a slain custom's agent was parked in the lot.

The customs agent, who has not yet been identified, was found shot dead at 8:30 a.m. this morning.

The discovery comes as a massive manhunt continues for Brian Nichols, 33, who is suspected of shooting and killing the judge in his rape case and two others on Friday.

Nichols apparently was holding a hostage at the apartments before he surrendered.

Facing life in prison, Nichols transformed himself Friday morning from accused rapist to hunted fugitive after he grabbed a handgun from a deputy sheriff and burst into a Fulton County courtroom and opened fire, killing a judge and a court reporter.

As he made his escape from the courthouse in downtown Atlanta, he shot to death a deputy who briefly impeded his getaway, police said.

Police acknowledged early Saturday morning that the car they earlier believed he had used for his escape was found in the downtown Atlanta parking lot where it had been reported stolen in the morning.

Saturday morning, WSB-TV reported that someone claiming to be Nichols had called authorities and made a threat to kill the prosecutor in his case, Assistant District Attorney Gayle Abramson.

According to the WSB report, the call was made around 4:15 p.m. Friday. There was no confirmation that the person calling was in fact Nichols, but as a precaution extra security was provided for Abramson.

Within the span of 15 minutes, Nichols shut down the state's busiest courthouse, caused chaos in downtown Atlanta and put law enforcement throughout the Southeast on high alert.

He left a despairing legal community in Atlanta wondering about the worst security breach yet in Fulton County's flawed justice system. And his violence sparked a nation to wrestle once again with the difficult issue of security in its halls of justice.

It was unclear what moved Nichols to shoot and kill Rowland Barnes, 64, the widely respected Fulton County Superior Court judge assigned to Nichols' trial. Yet it seemed that Nichols had worked with a purpose: After the 210-pound former college football player overpowered Deputy Cynthia Hall — who was guarding him as he changed from his jail jumpsuit into street clothes for his trial — he set out for Barnes' courtroom instead of taking a quick route to freedom.

Courthouse officials said that Nichols entered Barnes' private chambers demanding to see the judge shortly after 9 a.m. A staff member pushed a "panic" button, triggering a light in the courtroom. Nichols overpowered and handcuffed a deputy who responded to the alarm.

He took his gun, and armed with two weapons, Nichols stormed into the courtroom and opened fire. After shooting Barnes, he shot and killed Julie Ann Brandau, 46, the court reporter seated near the judge.

Richard L. Robbins, a lawyer, was arguing an unrelated civil case before Barnes when the shootings occurred. "It was just horrific," said Robbins, who was too shaken to say much more Friday afternoon.

Renee Rockwell, a lawyer working on an unrelated case, walked into Barnes' courtroom just after the shooting. "I saw hats on the ground, and all the deputies were running with guns drawn," Rockwell said. "You don't ever see that." She said she was pushed into an elevator by deputies. One was crying.

The two prosecutors trying the case, Gayle Abramson and Ash Joshi, were still in their offices in the courthouse complex. Jurors on the Nichols case were in the building but had not yet been called to the courtroom.

"He wanted the people who were involved in his trial," said Deputy District Attorney Al Dixon.

Nichols' opportunity presented itself when he found himself alone with Hall, a 51-year-old grandmother who is about 5 feet tall, police said.

Hall was with Nichols in a windowless holding room on the eighth floor of the newer of Fulton County's two court buildings. Barnes' courtroom is in the older building nearby. Nichols pounced on Hall, who was injured so badly that emergency officials later couldn't determine whether she was severely beaten or shot in the face. Her skull was cracked, her brain was bruised and the bones around her right eye were fractured, said Dr. Jeffrey Salomone, a trauma surgeon at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Equipped with Hall's gun and police radio, Nichols walked from the newer building to the older one, using a sky bridge that joins them.

After the shooting, he bolted from the bloodied courtroom and made for a stairwell, running down eight flights out an emergency door, setting off an alarm.

Deputies chased down the stairs after him. Crossing Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, he entered the Underground Atlanta parking garage. He ran into Deputy Hoyt Teasley, 43.

Nichols shot Teasley multiple times in the stomach and then carjacked an SUV, police said. Teasley, who wasn't wearing a bulletproof vest, had pulled his gun but didn't have a chance to fire it, said Fulton County Sgt. Mike Thompson. His gun was found near his body, Thompson said.

Thompson struggled to save Teasley's life. "I did all I could," said Thompson, who wiped the blood off his hand and began roping off the area with yellow crime scene tape.

As police swarmed, Nichols stole a dark SUV and sped away.

Steve Robinson, 16, of Atlanta was walking to the courthouse when he heard shots from the parking garage. He turned to see a man being tossed from the SUV. "People were running out of the parking lot, scrambling everywhere," Robinson said. "Everyone was scared to death."

A few blocks to the west, Deronta Franklin, a tow-truck driver, was waiting on a dispatch at Peachtree and Wall streets when he saw a dark SUV round the corner and hit the curb. Police cars followed. Suddenly, the driver of the SUV was at Franklin's window, pointing a gun at his face. "He told me to get out of the truck, and I told him he could have the truck," Franklin said.

The man got in Franklin's truck and sped north on Peachtree Street, then took a left on Walton Street, going the wrong way down a one-way street.

Minutes later, Almeta Kilgo, 37, a computer programmer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, was parking in the Cone Street parking garage when a man believed to be Nichols approached. "He came over, put a gun to my head, and told me to 'move over,' " she said. He started to drive the car, but could not figure how to exit the garage. "He kept saying, 'Get in the trunk,' " Kilgo said.

Kilgo ran away screaming, and Nichols drove off.

A few moments later, Don O'Briant, a veteran reporter at the Journal-Constitution, was parking at a garage on the same street when a man approached him asking for directions. When the man pulled a gun and demanded his keys O'Briant complied. The man then told O'Briant to get into the trunk of O'Briant's 1997 green Honda Accord. O'Briant refused.

O'Briant said he began to run when the man hit him over his left eye with either the butt of his gun or his fist, gashing O'Briant's head.

Law enforcement put out a nationwide alert searching for O'Briant's car, listing the license plate. Late Friday night, however, a Journal-Constitution employee found O'Briant's car parked in the same garage where the carjacking had occurred more than 12 hours earlier.

Police refused to discuss why the car had not been discovered in earlier sweeps of the deck.

And Nichols was gone.

Barry Hazen, Nichols' attorney, described his client, a former UPS worker and dropout from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, as "very laid-back, very easygoing, very polite."

Hazen, however, thought Nichols was going to prison on felony charges that he raped and held hostage a former girlfriend. It was Nichols' second time around on the charges: a trial ended last week with a hung jury.

"I didn't think the jury was going to do anything but convict," Hazen said. "I was very surprised. This time around, I thought he had no chance."

Juror Robert Singleton, 40, said he was in the first-floor cafeteria when a couple of deputies got up from their table and said there was trouble on the eighth floor. "He probably thought today was Judgment Day," Singleton said of Nichols. Singleton said he had not yet decided whether Nichols was guilty in the rape case.

"The only thing I had decided was that someone had gone crazy, either him or the [woman who accused him of rape]," Singleton said. "And now we know who."

From about 9:30 a.m. into Friday night, news helicopters followed squad cars around the metro area, tracking down rumored sightings of Nichols. Clayton County police officers circled a Jonesboro neighborhood Friday morning where the suspects' parents live.

Emergency messages were posted on highway signs across the state and law enforcement agencies from Atlanta Police to the FBI were put on alert. Atlanta public schools were put on lockdown throughout Friday.

The shootings brought a special prayer in the General Assembly. Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor started the Senate session today saying, "If there ever was a day we need a devotional and prayer, it is today."

Gov. Sonny Perdue, speaking outside Grady hospital, said "It is a sad day for our country."


Barnes' neighbors wept in the street when they learned of his death.

Enriqueta R. Lineres, who lives next door to the Barnes family, said, "Oh, Jesus. Oh, Lord. Why? My heart is broke."

Bah, Gwinnett is basically part of Atlanta anyway :p.

I agree absolutely. With this level of competence, I shudder to think what an organized terrorist cell could do if they wanted. Of course, at this rate, we may find out in a couple of years. Good to know 4 years of concentration on Homeland Security has netted us so much improvement.

The biggest news with the ATL PD, that I've been aware of, is how the vice squad impounds the vehicles of "Johns" and the reputation they have for physically assaulting women trying to pick up their parents/grandparents at the airport. Apparently those were the areas they needed the improvements in after 9/11.

Yeah, right. :cool:

Gwinnett works hard to be seen as separate of Atlanta, IMO. Now they get to take some of the glory.

I'm just stunned that the lone guard was a 5 foot 51 year old woman. The fact that she was so badly hurt that they can't tell if she was shot or beat is stunning too. I'm just glad this A-hole is caught.

Three interesting tidbits:

1. Police are afraid there might be another victim. Since he didn't take that Accord, they think he somehow stole another vehicle to get to the Lenox area to kill the Cutom agent. It is possible that he high-jacked and kidnapped the agent, but they are afraid he might have taken a car and killed someone else.

2. The police knew he was still in the area because he stole a cell phone from one of the car jack victims, and it stayed on him the whole time. They knew he was moving in certain areas, but they couldn't pin-point exactly where.

3. A citizen called the police to tip them off he was in the apartments he was captured in. He saw him run from the pick-up and running into the apartment.

The last time this much damage was incurred in Atlanta, Bill Sherman blew thru town.

Georgia Cop to speeding Yankee: "Nobody goes that fast thru Georgia!"

Yankee's response: "Sherman did"

Interesting how the different cable news are talking about this. First thought I had was "was the overpowered deputy a female?" Similar thing happened in Detroit couple of years ago. Fox News has consistantly stated is was a 'female deputy." MSNBC has studiously avoided using the word 'female' in front of deputy. Being PC? Not sure about the others.

Agree 100%. This was just monumental incompetance that allowed this to happen.

I've met David Allman several times. He's very involved in the Fulton County branch of the ministry I work for.

I cant believe this guy didnt go down in a hail of bullets. You kill a judge and try to escape cause you might get a life sentance, meanwhile adding 3-4 more people to your body count. And then you surrender, now will pretty much 100% get the death penalty, and spend the rest of your life in prison. It just seems pretty odd.

Well, based on David's account, it certainly sounds like he was very much after the judge, which was not the prevailing thought yesterday.

Depending on how it is meant, this could be troublesome


As Nichols was taken into federal custody, a crowd of people cheered across the street from the apartment complex where he was arrested. They watched as a black sport utility vehicle drove away, escorted by multiple police cars with lights flashing and sirens wailing.

Surely they were cheering for the cops?

Absolutely. There were people stopping their cars all along the route from Gwinnett to the FBI HQ. (My wife saw the caravan, FYI, and confirmed this.) All were cheering for the cops.

And this is bad because? :)

That apartment complex is about 5 minutes from where Oliegirl and I live. Also, when they took him onto the interstate, there is a very good chance that the office I work in was visible from the chopper feed that was going out everywhere. Freaky to be that close to something that turned into such a national story like this.

I work at a radio station that airs the Michael Savage show. He had this guy filling in for him named Rick Roberts. Roberts did an amazing thing on friday night. In the three hours he was on I heard him talking about three things: 1. A local thing in San Diego involving a war memorial (the way he talked about it you would have thought it was the end of the world.) 2. The woman whose husband wants her feeding tube removed. 3. How much he appreciates filling in (at least four times per hour.) Not once in three hours did I hear even a mention of anything in Atlanta. Amazing. I would have thought the show was on tape, but you don't play tape of a fill-in.

The level of the security failures continues to grow as the details get out. The supposedly-monitored security camera in the area were Nichols attacked the female deputy captured the initial assult, but didn't help capture the suspect.

Setting himself up for an insanity defense???

Among the things that stand out in that article about the security problems:

1. "Policies allow one deputy to escort as many as four inmates at a time."

Wow. Maybe that's SOP, and not all of them would be unhandcuffed at the same time, but geez. I would think it at least possible that 4 muscular men, even handcuffed, could manage to overcome one deputy in a coordinated attack.

2. "In the detention center of the Justice Center Tower, at least eight deputies took the elevator to the eighth floor on their way to Barnes' court."

Not one of them thought to take the stairs?!

Still watching those Dallas DVD's, eh?

Good point. Even Jeb Ames and Willie Joe Garr thought to guard the stairs so Julie Grey couldn't get away.

:D

From Neal Nuze this morning. Priceless...