Atlanta Manhunt

[bigted]

I found this over at cnn.com

Atlanta manhunt moves beyond carjacked Honda

Officials fear suspect in three killings may have taken a hostage

Saturday, March 12, 2005 Posted: 9:38 AM EST (1438 GMT)

Suspect Brian Nichols appears in this surveillance video taken Friday morning at an Atlanta parking garage.

CHARGES IN NICHOLS TRIAL

• Rape

• False imprisonment

• Aggravated sodomy

• Burglary

• Aggravated assault with intent to rape

• Possession of a firearm during commission of a felony

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Security camera images from inside a parking garage have given investigators their latest lead in the hunt for a man wanted in the courthouse killings of a judge, a court reporter and a sheriff's deputy.

But the photos failed to show how he made his getaway.

The suspect, 33-year-old Brian Nichols, is wanted in the shooting deaths of Judge Rowland W. Barnes, court reporter Julie Ann Brandau and deputy sheriff Hoyt Teasley.

The nationwide manhunt for Nichols shifted focus late Friday with the discovery that the 1997 Honda Accord police had earlier thought was used for the getaway, was still in the garage where he carjacked it from a newspaper reporter after the courthouse shootings.

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.

A series of photos taken by two stairwell cameras show a shirtless Nichols putting on a jacket apparently taken from the reporter as he walked to a lower level and disappeared.

No camera was in position to capture what happened when Nichols exited the stairwell.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vernon Keenan says the fear now is Nichols may have taken another vehicle, and its owner as hostage, soon after abandoning the Honda.

"That is of concern to us," Keenan said. "We know that in the previous carjacking he had ordered the driver of the vehicle to get in the automobile that he was carjacking. We are very concerned that is a possibility that has happened."

There have been no missing person reports, Keenan said.

"We do not know what type of vehicle he is now operating," Keenan said. "We do not know how he left from here."

Keenan described the manhunt for Nichols as the largest in Georgian history.

But it was a private citizen who realized Friday night the 1997 Honda they were looking for was still in the Centennial garage, just blocks from the Fulton County Courthouse where the shootings occurred. It apparently had never been moved.

That garage was where a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said the Honda was taken from him following the shootings.

The shootings occurred about 9 a.m., as Nichols was being led into an 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 apparently overpowered a deputy in an elevator on their way to the courtroom, police said.

Jeffrey Salamone, attending trauma surgeon at Grady Memorial Hospital, said the deputy escorting Nichols suffered a graze wound from a gunshot.

Salamone said Cynthia Hall has a small bruise on her brain and some fractures around her face. She was in critical condition, but was expected to survive.

Once inside the courtroom, police said, Nichols held people in the room at bay briefly, then shot Judge Barnes and Brandau -- both of whom died at the scene.

Nichols then fled the building, where outside he shot Sgt. Teasley in the abdomen, officials said. The sheriff's deputy was pronounced dead at the hospital, Salamone said.

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.

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 $60,000 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.

"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," said attorney B. J. Bernstein.

Well-respected judge

Bernstein told CNN that Judge Barnes, who presided over civil and criminal cases, was "extremely highly thought of in the legal community."

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."

[JumpinJack AJ]

Earlier 2day, AOL featured an updated article. They caught the guy, he's in police custody. He came up 2 some girl who waz entering her house and he said that she had 2 let him in and let him stay there or he'd kill her. He either let her out of the house or somehow got away and called 911. Cops and a SWAT team surrounded her house, and after he saw what waz happening on the news, he surrendered. I read the news when it 1st happened. That guy is a psycopath.

[bigted]

Yeah that's good that he finally got caught, you just don't know why some people act the way they do, you gotta constantly watch ya back. :speechless:

[JumpinJack AJ]

Yeah, i live my life day 2 day as a happy person, careless of the things that could go wrong, but u gotta have those street smarts 2 back u up 2 kick in when necessary. U never know when it's your time 2 go, and i don't think u should dwell on that, but i think it's important 2 be ready 4 whatever.