Saturday, March 12, 2005

Brian Nichols is in custody

Brian Nichols, the man that killed a judge, a court reporter, a deputy sheriff, and a Customs Agent in Atlanta, is now in custody. He probably would have also called the assistant DA, but she was 90 seconds away from the courtroom when he shot the others. He had been caught with two shanks on his last visit to court, so the judge ordered more security. I wonder what security he had before, if one small, armed, 50 year old deputy was considered to be more security. I am also amazed that the green car they were looking for all day yesterday turned up in the same parking garage as it was carjacked (just one floor down).

At least this incident got the police's attention, because when they finally tracked him down they did a complete search of him, including looking under his tongue, behind his ears, etc, and they then transported him to the local FBI office, rather than having the local police try to hold onto him.

Update March 13: NYT reports Long before the carnage that Brian Nichols is accused of unleashing Friday at the Fulton County Courthouse - killing a judge, a court reporter and a sheriff's deputy - the jail where he was housed and the courtroom where the first shootings occurred were beset with security problems..... Last week's rampage and the circumstances surrounding it have given rise to a chorus of criticism from judges, lawyers and law enforcement experts, who say that security in the courthouse, which is the responsibility of the Fulton County sheriff's office, has been too lax for too long..... One senior judge flatly blamed the sheriff's office, telling Atlanta's major daily newspaper, The Journal-Constitution, that it was "absolutely ludicrous" for an armed deputy to have been alone with a potentially violent and much bigger prisoner.

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