AJC.com > Breaking News > Archives > 2005 > March
March 2005
Pope’s previous illnesses, ailments
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A list of the current known ailments afflicting Pope John Paul II (Medical experts say the fact he is elderly and debilitated from various illnesses put him at high risk of infection):
Breathing problems that forced him to undergo surgery Feb. 24 to insert a tube in his throat to aid respiration.
High fever from a urinary tract infection that also reportedly caused his blood pressure to fall.
Feeding tube to provide him with additional nutrition because of problems swallowing.
Parkinson’s disease, affecting speech, mobility and posture, for at least a decade.
Knee and hip ailments that make it impossible to stand.
PAST AILMENTS:
2002: Arthritis of the knee forced several appearances to be canceled.
1996: Inflamed appendix removed.
1994: Breaks leg in a fall, undergoes hip replacement surgery.
1993: Dislocates right shoulder in fall at the Vatican.
1992: Operation for benign tumor on colon.
1981: Shot in abdomen and hand by Turkish gunman in St. Peter’s Square, later hospitalized again for infection linked to the wounds.
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Tears, sadness outside Schiavo’s hospice
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
PINELLAS PARK — Harvest Bashta sat on the grass, her 15-year old legs stretched out in front of her, an open Bible on her lap, tears streaming down her face as she tried to cope with the news — Terri Schiavo had died.
Just yards from the hospice where Schiavo took her last breath, Harvest wondered if it could be true. But as the tears kept falling she felt that her prayers for the 41-year old woman she never met had been futile.
“I was hoping for a miracle,” said the high school sophomore from Chicago. “This is a very sad day.”
A man played hymns on a trumpet. A woman wailed, “Jesus kill us.”
Children looked confused and saddened. Another woman blew a ram’s horn.After 15 years in what doctors said was a persistent vegetative state, the last five of which have wrapped up in bitter, public court struggle, Terri Schiavo has become a religious symbol for hundreds of people who gathered in front of the hospice where her feeding tube was removed on March 18.
When Franciscan Brother Paul O’Donnell announced her passing about an hour after she died at 9:05 a.m., the prayers became more fervent.
Rosary prayers, readings from the Bible, hymn-singing, and sobbing broke out among those who have spent nearly two weeks protesting and agonizing over the removal of the feeding tube.
A group sang How Great Thou Art, and 50 yards away people expressed their grief by kneeling round a makeshift altar, with pictures of the Virgin Mary, Jesus and Terri Schiavo behind the altar. Red roses and a statue of Jesus sat before the pictures, along with lit white candles and a bottle of PF 45 sunblock to protect them from the sun that had left most protesters beet red.
One boy about 5 years old reacted with a single word: “Cruel.”
“Life is precious. Euthanasia is murder,” said Dawn Kozsey, a resident in Ocala National Forest who spent the night outside the hospice.
Patrick Bautch, 39, of Milwaukee, said, “I’m deeply upset about it. I feel that our president has let us down. I believe he could have done something about it.”
Someone made a shrine by spreading a green blanket on the grassy swale outside the hospice. On the blanket was an oversize, wooden set of rosary beads surrounding a Bible. Yellow nylon rope help in place by PVC pipe bordered the shrine. There were fake flowers and a small American flag.
A few feet away, Monsignor Thaddeus Malanowski gave Holy Communion. “They may have won her body but we’ve won her soul. God’s won her soul,” said Malanowski, one of several advisers to Schiavo’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler.
Mary Ann McGuire, 51, of Scranton, Pa., who had been outside the hospice for several days over the past week, stood weeping by the side of the road outside the hospice. She compared Schiavo’s death to Jesus’.
“God allowed people to do this to his son,” she said. “The legal system executed her and she was innocent, just like Jesus was. I was thankful for Terri to be at peace now. She’s in heaven with a new body that suffers no pain.”
But she looked around at the crowd of protesters that had thinned considerably since last week and wished more had stayed.
“If everyone who loved Jesus was here, they couldn’t have done this.”
Patrick Bautch of Milwaukee said he was angry with President Bush for not intervening. He dropped his sign which read, “President Bush Please Help Terri.”
“Where is he?” Bautch asked. “He could have done something.”
From time to time during the 13 days Schiavo was without food and water, a handful of supporters of her husband would join the protesters.
They argued that Michael Schiavo knew what was best for his wife and loved her enough to see to it that her wish not to live in a vegetative state would be granted.
Rick Carner of Texas, who spent the last week outside the hospice, said, “I can’t believe this is the way we treat a human life. We will not forget her.”
As for Michael, Carner said, “As a Christian I should forgive. But it’s hard right now. I think he has a hard heart and he will answer to God.”
When the word of Terri Schiavo’s death went out Thursday, none of Michael Schiavo’s supporters were outside the hospice.
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Autopsy will answer two principal questions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The lawyer for Terri Schiavo’s husband, Michael, has said the chief medical examiner for Pinellas County, Fla., where she died has agreed to perform an autopsy. It could take several weeks to complete, the medical examiner said, and will include a thorough examination by a board-certified neuropathologist, as well as routine forensic procedures and X-rays. That could shed light on two questions that have been publicly raised:
— Was Terri Schiavo’s diagnosis of ”persistent vegetative state” correct? Her husband hopes it will offer definitive proof of that diagnosis.
Such a finding is mostly made by observing someone’s behavior. However, experts say a brain autopsy could help support such a diagnosis by showing patterns of brain damage consistent with a persistent vegetative state.
”If there’s very extensive brain injury, it would be hard to accept another diagnosis as being conceivable,” said Dr. Roger Albin, a neurology professor and director of the brain bank at the University of Michigan Medical School.
— Was she physically abused, as her family suggested and her husband has repeatedly denied?
An autopsy can detect whether bones have broken and healed, even many years ago. It can’t determine when the injury occurred. But comparisons with X-rays from previous dates could help get a fix on that.
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DeLay: Legal system failed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said ”the men responsible for this” death will be called to account.
Terri Schiavo, who suffered severe brain damage after a heart attack 15 years ago, died Thursday in Florida. The feeding tube that had been keeping her alive was removed with a judge’s approval on March 18.
DeLay appeared to condemn judges who at both the state and federal level declined to order that Schiavo be kept alive artificially.
”This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change,” the Texas Republican said. ”The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today. Today we grieve, we pray, and we hope to God this fate never befalls another.”
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Terri Schiavo’s hometown divided on issue
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terri Schiavo’s relatives and acquaintances in her native Pennsylvania marked her passing Thursday, and continued to disagree about whether more should have been done to keep her alive.
Her brother in-law, Scott Schiavo, said in interviews with television reporters at his Levittown home that he felt relief that her ordeal is finally over. ”Terri’s at rest now, that’s the most important thing to all of us, my family, that Terri is at peace, that she’s in a better place,” he said.
”She’s got all of her dignity back,” he said. ”She’s now in heaven, she’s now with God and she’s walking with grace.”
Schiavo, brother of Terri’s husband, Michael, said he had received several threatening phone calls from around the country in the hours after the death.
At her alma mater, Archbishop Wood High School in Warminster, workers changed a sign that read ”Terri Schiavo, Class of 1981, We pray that you may live” to ”We pray that you rest in peace.”
”It’s sad. Why not let the lady live?” said John Rogers, one of the workers who changed the sign. ”Feed the lady, let her live. This is America.”
U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., issued a written statement expressing condolences to Schiavo’s family, and lashing out at the court system.
”Terri Schiavo was given a death sentence, and passed away without the right to due process,” Santorum said.
He called Terri an ”innocent person” who was ”penalized by a court system that grants convicted murderers fair treatment under the law, but not a woman whose only crime was not filing a living will.”
‘She’s got all of her dignity back’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Michael Schiavo’s attorney, George Felos, announced the death but had no immediate comment beyond that. Michael Schiavo’s whereabouts were not immediately known.
“She’s got all of her dignity back. She’s now in heaven, she’s now with God, and she’s walking with grace,” Michael Schiavo’s brother, Scott Schiavo, said at his Levittown, Pa., home.
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Michael Schiavo was determined, brother says
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
His opponents included his wife’s parents — and the president of the United States. And in the end, Michael Schiavo prevailed. His wife, Terri, died this morning — nearly two weeks after her feeding tube was pulled.
Michael Schiavo’s older brother has said they were ”raised to never give up.” Scott Schiavo says his brother kept that in mind as he battled for years to allow his brain-damaged wife die, as he thought she would want.
Michael Schiavo said his wife told him she would never want to be kept alive artificially. Bob and Mary Schindler insisted she could get better.
His stance brought Schiavo criticism. On talk shows, the Internet and in protests in front of his own home, he was accused of greed, adultery and murder.
After his wife’s death, a Catholic priest advising the parents accused the husband of ”heartless cruelty” because Bob and Mary Schindler weren’t with their daughter when she died.
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Cardinal cites ‘attack against God’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Vatican cardinal denounced the death Thursday of Terri Schiavo, saying that removing the feeding tube that kept her alive was ”an attack against God.”
Portuguese Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, head of the Vatican’s office for sainthood, said that ”an attack against life is an attack against God, who is the author of life.”
Pope John Paul, 84, has been put on a feeding tube of his own as Parkinson’s disease and other ailments have left him increasingly frail.
The cardinal’s comments reflected other recent remarks by Vatican prelates since Schiavo’s feeding tube was disconnected with a judge’s approval March 18. She suffered severe brain damage after a heart attack 15 years ago.
”The prolonged interruption in her feeding … is shaping up as an unjust death sentence to an innocent, in one of the most inhumane and cruel forms — that of death from hunger and thirst,” Renato Martino, who heads the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, told Vatican Radio earlier in the day, before her death was announced.
”The dutiful and unavoidable respect for a human being should impose that … what would practically and without euphemism be murder — to which it is impossible to stand by inert without becoming an accomplice — be avoided,” he said.
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President says millions are saddened
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
President Bush today said “millions of Americans are saddened” by Terri Schiavo’s death at a Florida hospice.
Bush says he’s urging those who honor Schiavo to ”continue to build a culture of life” where all Americans are protected — ”especially those who live at the mercy of others.” He says in cases where there is serious doubt, ”the presumption should be in favor of life.”
Bush offered words of comfort and praise for Schiavo’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, for their “display of grace and dignity.”
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Schindlers not in room at moment of death
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The feud between Terri Schiavo’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, and their son-in-law continued even after her death: The Schindlers’ spiritual advisers said the couple had been at their daughter’s besides minutes before the end came, but were not there at the moment of her death because Michael Schiavo did not want them in the room.
”And so his heartless cruelty continues until this very last moment,” said the Rev. Frank Pavone. He added: ”This is not only a death, with all the sadness that brings, but this is a killing, and for that we not only grieve that Terri has passed but we grieve that our nation has allowed such an atrocity as this and we pray that it will never happen again.”
David Gibbs III, a lawyer for the Schindlers, said: ”This is indeed a sad day for the nation, for the family. … God loves Terri more than they do. She is at peace.”
Michael Schiavo’s attorney, George Felos, announced the death but had no immediate comment beyond that.
Schiavo, 41, died quietly at 9:05 a.m. in a Pinellas Park. Fla., hospice 13 days after her feeding tube was removed despite extraordinary intervention by Florida lawmakers, Congress and President Bush � efforts that were rebuffed at every turn by the courts.
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Despair and anger outside hospice
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terri Schiavo’s death was met with sadness, anger, despair and frustration Thursday by supporters of her parents, who had battled the severely brain-damaged woman’s husband over the removal of her feeding tube. Some protesters called her death a murder.
Since March 18, a cadre of fervent demonstrators gathered outside Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., to voice their opposition against Michael Schiavo’s decision to have the woman’s feeding tube pulled. Many supporters slept overnight in tents or sleeping bags, while others held signs and sang songs in their 13-day vigil.
Thursday morning, people burst into tears and threw down the signs they had been carrying as news surfaced that Terri Schiavo had passed away.
”You saw a murder happening,” said Dominique Hanks, who had ridden her motorized wheelchair around the hospice every day since Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed March 18.
”Everybody who denied her right to live are accomplices to murder, and God knows,” Hanks said.
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Gov. Jeb Bush laments death
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Jeb Bush, whose repeated attempts to get Terro Schiavo’s feeding tube reinserted, said that millions of people around the state and world will be ”deeply grieved” by her death but that the debate over her fate could help others grapple with end-of-life issues.
”After an extraordinarily difficult and tragic journey, Terri Schiavo is at rest,” Bush said. ”I remain convinced, however, that Terri’s death is a window through which we can see the many issues left unresolved in our families and in our society. For that, we can be thankful for all that the life of Terri Schiavo has taught us.”
His brother, the president, was expected to speak on Schiavo’s death later Thursday.
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Priest for Schindlers calls Michael Schiavo ‘heartless’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A priest advising Terri Schiavo’s parents is denouncing the woman’s husband in the aftermath of her death. He says Michael Schiavo’s ”heartless cruelty,” as he describes it, continued to the end.
Father Frank Pavone says Michael Schiavo wouldn’t let Mary and Bob Schindler be with their daughter when she died.
Pavone says family members were with the brain-damaged woman until 10 to 15 minutes before her death, but were asked to leave. Pavone says the parents asked to be with her when she died, but the husband refused.
Pavone says Schiavo’s death is ”a killing” and an ”atrocity.”
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Moment of silence at Florida capitol
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In Tallahassee, Senate President Tom Lee, R-Brandon, stopped debate on a bill to announce Schiavo’s death.
”Regardless of your perspective on end of life issues, it is a very sad moment and it is a very reflective moment for a lot of us and I think it would appropriate to have a moment of silence in her honor,” Lee told the Senate.
Sen. Daniel Webster, who unsuccessfully sought support for a bill written to keep Schiavo alive, stood with his eyes closed. Behind him Sen. Gary Siplin, who voted against the bill, held his hands out palm up and also closed his eyes.
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Vatican cardinal condemns ‘accomplices’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Vatican cardinal said Thursday that leaving Terri Schiavo with no food and water amounts to murdering her, and said that one can’t stand by inert without becoming an accomplice.
The comments by Cardinal Renato Martino reflect other remarks by Vatican prelates in the past weeks over the case of Schiavo, a woman whose feeding tube was disconnected almost two weeks ago. The comments came hours before Schiavo’s death.
”The prolonged interruption in her feeding … is shaping up as an unjust death sentence to an innocent, in one of the most inhumane and cruel forms, that of death from hunger and thirst,” Martino told Vatican Radio. Martino said that respect for human life should impose that ”what would practically and without euphemism represent murder” be avoided. He said it’s ”impossible to stand by inert without becoming an accomplice.”
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Protesters hug, sing hymns
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Protesters who had been keeping vigil outside Terri Schiavo’s hospice began praying, singing and hugging each other upon hearing that she died today.
Protesters streamed into Pinellas Park, Fla., before her feeding tube was removed on March 18. Their numbers grew as her ordeal lengthened — and dozens were arrested at the site, including some who tried to bring her water.
One woman who was outside the hospice today said ”Words cannot express the rage I feel.” She added ”Is my heart broken for this? Yes.”
Other protesters could be heard singing hymns and praying with each other outside the hospice.
Terri Schiavo dies 13 days after tube removal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Pinellas Park, Fla. — Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman whose 15 years connected to a feeding tube sparked an epic legal battle that went all the way to the White House and Congress, died Thursday, 13 days after the tube was removed. She was 41.
Schiavo died at the Pinellas Park hospice where she lay for years while her husband and her parents fought over her fate in the nation’s longest, most bitter right-to-die dispute.
Her death was confirmed to The Associated Press by Michael Schiavo’s attorney, George Felos, and announced to reporters outside her hospice by a family adviser.
Brother Paul O’Donnell, an adviser to Schiavo’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, said the parents and their two other children ”were denied access at the moment of her death. They’ve been requesting, as you know, for the last hour to try to be in there and they were denied access by Michael Schiavo. They are in there now, praying at her bedside.”
Schiavo suffered severe brain damage in 1990 after her heart stopped because of a chemical imbalance that was believed to have been brought on an eating disorder. Court-appointed doctors ruled she was in a persistent vegetative state, with no real consciousness or chance of recovery.
The feeding tube was removed with a judge’s approval March 18 after Michael Schiavo argued that his wife told him long ago she would not want to be kept alive artificially. His in-laws disputed that, and argued that she could get better with treatment.
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View from patient inside the hospice
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ed Emerson, 71, has been been watching the protests and media activity at Woodside hospice from the inside — as a patient.
Emerson, who rolled out on to the ground today on an electric scooter, said he has spent a month in the room across the hall from Terri Schiavo.
“All I saw was people coming and going from the young lady’s room. I saw the police officers,” he said.
Emerson praised the Pinellas Park, Fla., hospice and its staff and said his heart and lung condition had improved at the facility. A month ago, he moved into a small apartment in a separate section of the hospice.
He said he had been one of the “four musketeers” with three other patients, but the other three have died, two in the last three weeks since protesters began gathering outside.
Emerson said patients’ visitors have no trouble getting past police barricades as long as they are on approved lists.
Of the Schiavo case, he said, “I don’t have an opinion. It’s up to the judges.”
Gayle White
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Trespassing arrests in Florida
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - Five adults and three children were arrested for trespassing early Friday afternoon for attempting to cross a police barricade to take cups of water to Terri Schiavo.
The Rev. Bill Dunsee, 40, of Warsaw, Ohio, quoted scripture to explain why he was willing to go to jail.
“Jesus said, ‘I was thirsty and you gave me water,’” he said.
Dunsee calls court orders withholding food and water from the brain-damaged woman “the Roe v. Wade of euthanasia.”
10-year-old Joshua Heldreth, of Charlotte, N.C., said he was willing to be arrested because, “I don’t want her to die. I care about her.”
Asked whether he was scared of being arrested, he said, “No, God is with me.” “He doesn’t understand why anyone would deny anybody water,” said his dad, Scott, who planned to sign for his son’s release.
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Petition: Schiavo tried to say ‘I want to live’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A petition to a federal appeals court in Atlanta today claims that Terri Schiavo tried to tell her lawyer and her family “I want to live” the day her feeding tube was removed.
The petition, filed this afternoon in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said that on March 18, Schiavo said “Ahhhhhhh” and then followed that by “summoning] all the strength that she had” and added, “Waaaaaaa.”
“At that point, Terri had a look of anguish on her face that I had never seen before and she seemed to be struggling hard, but was unable to finish the sentence,” attorney Barbara J. Weller said in an affidavit filed with the petition asking that the severely brain-damaged woman’s feeding tube be re-inserted.
Weller’s statement also claims that Schiavo “laughed out loud” when she heard Jesus’s name after being told that “Jesus would stay right by [your]side.”
The petition, filed on behalf of her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, represents the second time the appeals court has heard the case this week. Early Wednesday, the court, by a 2-1 vote declined to order a federal judge in Tampa to hear evidence in the case.
Today’s filing calls removal of food and hydration to Schiavo an illegal “mercy killing” which violates Florida law. The petition also claims that Schiavo’s constitutional rights are being violated because the courts are not hearing new evidence that the woman has some cognitive functions.
A response filed by Schiavo’s husband and guardian, Michael, called those arguments “a naked emotional appeal.”
“As demonstrated by appellants’ brief, they have abandoned all pretense of arguing law,” his petition states. “Appellants now literally throw themselves on the mercy of the court with ‘new’ evidence about Mrs. Schiavo’s medical condition, including a doctor who sat in her room but never examined her and two individuals who suddenly have remembered that they saw Mrs. Schiavo respond to them.”
The husband’s petition says the parents are “flagrantly propandiz(ing) this matter by describing it a ‘mercy killing‘ case.” and are “repackage the same arguments rejected by the district court and this court two days ago.”
The appeals court was reviewing the arguments late Friday afternoon.
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Schiavo family says Terri is ‘peaceful’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As advocates of Terri Schiavo’s parents make a desperate appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, her husband’s supporters have been pleading his case on the airwaves.
Brian Schiavo, brother of Michael Schiavo, tells CNN that Terri Schiavo is “peaceful” in her hospice bed.
“I will tell a lie detector test if I have to — she is not in pain,” he said.
He said Michael caresses and kisses Terri when he visits her, and she does not indicate to him she is in any pain.
George Felos, lawyer for Michael Schiavo, tells CNN that Michael has been with Terri “continuously.”
Asked by Fox News why Michael Schiavo did not divorce his wife after becoming involved with another woman, Felos said, “Michael is dedicated to Terri, he loves Terri, he made a promise to Terri. He knew if he walked away her wishes would not be carried out.”
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Schiavo’s father: Best hope is 11th Circuit
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The father of Terri Schiavo said today that the family’s best hope is with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“We’re making a strong appeal to the 11th District,” said Bob Schindler outside the hospice where his daughter lives. “We’re encouraging the judges, when we make the appeal, to make the right decision. We have some of the best legal minds in the country working on this. It’s not that we have poor attorneys that we have not been very successful, but I do think that what was presented in federal court last night was very viable.
“Our best hope right now is in the appellate court. Terry is weakening, she is down to her last hours. Something has to be done and done quickly.”
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Judge denies latest Schiavo request
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A federal judge refused Friday to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube, another in a string of defeats for the parents of the brain-damaged woman in their battle against her husband to keep her alive.
For a second time, U.S. District Judge James Whittemore ruled against the parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, who had asked him to grant their emergency request to restore her feeding tube while he considers a lawsuit they filed.
Hours after the decision, the Schindlers appealed again to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to review Whittemore’s ruling. The Atlanta court refused before to overturn a previous Whittemore ruling.
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Judge rebuffs Florida’s request
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A state judge refused Thursday to hear Gov. Jeb Bush’s arguments to take custody of Terri Schiavo, leaving the brain-damaged woman’s parents with only the slimmest hopes in their fight to keep her alive.
Bush’s request cited new allegations of neglect and challenges Schiavo’s diagnosis as being in a persistent vegetative state, but Pinellas Circuit Judge George Greer wasn’t convinced.
Greer’s decision came hours after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to order her feeding tube reinserted. The decisions reduce chances for quick intervention to reconnect the tube, which was pulled Friday. Doctors have said Schiavo, 41, likely would die in a week or two without nourishment.
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Supreme Court refuses to hear case
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to order Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube reinserted, rejecting a desperate appeal by her parents to keep their severely brain-damaged daughter alive.
The decision, announced in a terse one-page order, marked the end of a dramatic and disheartening four-day dash for her parents, Bob and Mary Schlindler, through the federal court system.
Justices did not explain their decision, which was at least the fifth time they have declined to get involved in the Schiavo case.
There was no indication of how the individual justices voted.
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Pressure put on Bush to defy court
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Advocates for the family of Terri Schiavo increased pressure on Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to defy court orders and intervene physically in the case of the brain-damaged woman whose feeding tube was removed Friday.
Such an action could result in a confrontation between state and local police.
“The governor is the chief executive of the state,” said Randall Terry, an anti-abortion advocate and spokesman for Schiavo’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler.
“The last time I looked, he doesn’t have to ask permission to enforce the laws of the state.”
But, Lt. Kevin Riley of the Pinellas Park Police Department, commander on the scene at the hospice where Schiavo lies, said his officers are under the orders of State Court Judge George W. Greer not to allow the state Department of Children and Families or any other agency, to interfere with Schiavo.
“We intend to enforce that order,” he said.
The Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalitions, said advocates for the family had expected the governor to take custody of Schiavo Wednesday night, but Bush apparently decided to wait on a Supreme Court ruling and for a new ruling expected today from Greer.
The Supreme Court refused this morning to take up the case.
Terry accused “pro-life, pro-family Republicans” of succumbing to what he called “tyrannical judges.”
“If Terri Schiavo dies,” Terry said, “there will be hell to pay.”
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Adviser: Schindlers have little recourse now
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Supreme Court’s decision today to not order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube leaves the family with little recourse, said a family spiritual adviser this morning.
Rev. Patrick Mahoney, head of the Christian Defense Coalition, and an advocate for the the brain-damaged woman’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, said, “Yesterday our legislative options closed. Just now our legal options closed. Gov. Bush is now the only practical hope for Terri Schiavo.”
At 12:30, the demonstrators outside the Florida hospice today plan to stage a vigil outside the Pinellas County Courthouse, where Sixth Circuit Judge George W. Greer is slated to decide whether the state can take protective custody of Schiavo.
On Friday, Greer ordered that Schiavo’s feeding tube be removed.
“We are not giving up. We are praying,” said Mahoney.
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Schiavo’s uncle discusses Terri’s condition
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terri Schiavo’s uncle, Mike Tammaro, from Corning, N.Y., said he had been trying to judge Terri’s condition from day to day.
“Obviously, there are changes. She doesn’t look totally weak, but you can tell she is failing some. You can see changes in her mouth and her color,” said Tammaro outside the hospice this afternoon.
Tammaro said Terri always responds to her mother’s voice but that his sister Mary is “having a hard time.”
“I’m having to have to talk her into going over now. She hates to see the changes. She realizes time is running out,” said Tammaro.
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Appeals court denies rehearing request
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The federal appeals court in Atlanta has denied a request by Terri Schiavo’s parents for a rehearing of a three-judge panel’s decision that her feeding tube not be hooked up again.
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Judge bars agency from taking custody
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
TALLAHASSEE — A state judge issued an emergency order Wednesday to keep the Department of Children & Families from taking any action that would reconnect Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube.
George Felos, the attorney for Michael Schiavo, asked Pinellas Circuit Judge George Greer to issue the order Wednesday while the judge considers a request from DCF and Gov. Bush to take custody of Terri Schiavo.
The request from DCF and the governor cited new allegations of neglect and challenges Schiavo’s diagnosis as being in a persistent vegetative state, based on the opinion of a neurologist working for the state.
Gov. Bush and Department of Children & Families Secretary Lucy Hadi argued they have statutory authority to intervene on behalf of Schiavo, who has been without nourishment since Friday afternoon.
State officials said earlier they were considering removing Terri Schiavo from the hospice, by force if necessary, despite numerous court orders upholding the removal of the artificial nutrition tube that has kept her alive for 15 years.
Hadi said Wednesday morning that her staff is relying on a state law that gives the department the authority to intervene on behalf of a vulnerable adult who is “suffering from abuse or neglect that presents a risk of death or serious physical injury.”
Hadi said that DCF would have to file a petition in order to remove Schiavo, but “it doesn’t mean that we’d have to have judicial approval in advance of taking the action if we believed it met the threshold for doing it.”
The law says emergency medical treatment can be given to the vulnerable adult as long as “such treatment does not violate a known health care advance directive prepared by the vulnerable adult.”
Schiavo did not have such a ruling, and Hadi said seven years of court rulings backing Schiavo’s husband, Michael, in his contention that she did not wish to be kept alive artificially would not stop DCF from taking action.
“We’re not compelled to look at prior judicial proceedings,” Hadi said. “What we’re compelled to look at is the presenting circumstance and any allegation of abuse and neglect that we’ve received. So we have to deal with those and fulfill our statutory responsibility, notwithstanding anything else that may have gone on before.”
But an elder law and guardianship expert says DCF is misinterpreting the law.
“My belief is that this would be a misuse of the statute,” said Scott Solkoff, a Boynton Beach attorney and chairman of the elder law division of the Florida Bar. “What the state is doing is they’re using yet another legal strategy that may or may not have grounds to attack what they believe to be a mistake from the judicial branch.”
Hadi objected to the notion that the court decisions unquestionably upheld Michael Schiavo’s case.
“There’s nothing about this case that has been clear-cut, except our concern,” Hadi said. “We’re doing everything we can to be of assistance.”
While Hadi sat in an outer office, Schiavo’s brother, Bobby Schindler, met with Sens. Walter “Skip” Campbell, D-Tamarac, and Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee. Schindler spent the morning trying to meet with senators who opposed the measure to persuade them to change their vote this afternoon.
Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings embraced Schindler outside Sen. Burt Saunder’s office.
“The governor sends his best,” she said.
Jennings hinted that some action was forthcoming, but declined to elaborate.
“I think they’re looking at the response to the abuse calls,” Jennings said. “You’ll be hearing more. Soon.”
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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President says no options left
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
WACO, Texas — President Bush suggested Wednesday that he and Congress had done their best to help Terri Schiavo’s parents prolong her life, and the White House said it has no further legal options.
“We felt like the actions taken with Congress was the best course of action,” Bush said.
He spoke during a news conference with his counterparts from Canada and Mexico.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan later said, “There really are not other legal options available to us.”
“We have explored all our options previously,” McClellan said.
The brain-damaged woman’s parents, racing against time, asked a federal appeals court in Atlanta on Wednesday for an emergency review of an appellate panel’s ruling that her feeding tube not be hooked up again.
Schiavo’s parents have also vowed to take their fight to the U.S. Supreme Court
Asked what avenues might remain, Bush said, “Now we’ll watch the courts make (their) decisions. But we looked at all options from the executive branch perspective.”
“This is an extraordinary and sad case,” he added.
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Seven adults, three children arrested at hospice
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Police arrested seven adults and three children today at Woodside Hospice after each tried to take a cup of water in to Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman whose feeding tube was removed Friday.
Chet Gallagher, 55, a former Las Vegas police officer who coordinated the demonstration for the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, said the effort was not an act of civil disobedience, but of “Biblical obedience.”
He said demonstrators were following Jesus’ mandate to offer water to the thirsty “among the least of these” in his name.
“When we do that for them, we do that for him,” Gallagher said.
Among those arrested were Eva Edl, 69, of Aiken, S.C., who spent time in a concentration camp in Yugoslavia as a child, she said; Dave Daubemire, 52, a 28-year veteran special education teacher, from Hebron, Ohio; Chris Keys, of Burnet, Texas, and three of his four children.
Keys held 2-year-old Farrah in his arms but handed her to his wife, Gaylen, as he was handcuffed and placed into a police van. His daughter, Josie, and sons Cameron, 12, and Gabriel, 10, were taken to a juvenile facility.
Demonstrators stepped onto the hospice driveway one by one, each holding a foam cup full of water. They dropped to their knees as Pinellas Park police stopped them. Officers gently pulled protesters to their feet, handcuffed them, and put them in waiting vans. The children were placed in a police cruiser.
Their mother followed the caravan of police vehicles to sign for their release. “I’m proud of them,” she said.
Each of those arrested were charged with trespassing after warning, a misdemeanor.
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Mother makes plea for daughter’s life
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
About 12:45 p.m., a stoic Mary Schindler made another plea for her daughter’s life.
“I see my daughter dying, starving to death. Please, someone out there stop this cruel treatment. Stop this insanity. Please let my daughter live,” Schindler said outside the hospice.
Schindler was accompanied by her husband Bob, daughter Suzanne Vitadamo, and two Franciscan friars.
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Parents ask for full appeals court review
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Racing against time to save their brain-damaged daughter’s life, Terri Schiavo’s parents asked a federal appeals court Wednesday for an emergency review of an appellate panel’s ruling that her feeding tube not be hooked up again.
The request for an “expedited rehearing” of the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was made 10 hours after the three-judge panel had rejected Bob and Mary Schindler’s earlier filing.
A majority of the 12-member court would have to agree to hear the case before it would be considered, said Matt Davidson, the court’s calendar clerk. There was no immediate word on when the court would make that decision.
In their appeal, the Schindlers said their daughter’s medical condition is “deteriorating rapidly.” They asked that the full court order the hospice in Florida where Schiavo is staying to immediately transport her to a hospital “for any medical necessary to sustain her life and to re-establish her nutrition and hydration.”
In a 2-1 ruling earlier Wednesday, the three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit said the parents “failed to demonstrate a substantial case on the merits of any of their claims” that the feeding tube should be reinserted immediately.
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Fla. legislator scrambles for votes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A state senator pushing a bill to keep Terri Schiavo alive said Wednesday is the Senate’s last chance to pass legislation to have the brain-damaged woman’s feeding tube reinserted. But another senator predicted the courts would strike such a bill down.
Sen. Daniel Webster was scrambling to secure votes to pass a bill that would prohibit patients like Schiavo from being denied food and water if they didn’t express their wishes in writing.
“Whatever it is, today is it,” said Webster.
The Senate began discussing Webster’s bill around 1:30 p.m.
Webster had said Tuesday that he needed at least two senators to change their position on his bill, which could be debated when the Senate begins its session Wednesday afternoon.
“I don’t even know if I have a majority vote,” said Webster, a Republican.
Gov. Jeb Bush on Wednesday renewed his call for the Legislature to step in and “spare Terri’s life.”
The Legislature had stepped in before, in 2003, and Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube was reinserted after six days at that time. But “Terri’s Law” was later struck down as unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court, which said it violated Terri Schiavo’s right to privacy and delegated legislative power to the governor.
The Senate minority leader, Sen. Les Miller, said the new bill faced a similar fate.
“By the time the ink is dry on the governor’s signature, it will be declared unconstitutional, just like it was before,” said Miller, a Democrat. “So I don’t see anything or any language that can persuade my vote.”
But at least one senator said he was considering changing his vote Wednesday morning.
“I’m praying about it,” said Sen. Gary Siplin, also a Democrat. “I don’t want anyone to die who doesn’t have to.”
If the Senate passes Webster’s bill, it would have to take a second vote requiring two-thirds approval to immediately sent it to the House. Otherwise, the House would have to wait until Thursday to consider the measure. The full House is not scheduled to meet Thursday, but it could be called into session if necessary.
The House has already passed a bill, but it has broader language than the Senate version. The Senate bill would apply only to cases where families disagree on a patient’s wishes.
Schiavo, 41, has been at the center of a court battle between her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, and her husband, Michael Schiavo, over whether she would want to be kept alive in a severely brain damaged state. She has gone without food and water since Friday, when her feeding tube was removed under court order. Doctors have said she could live through next week.
Michael Schiavo says she wouldn’t want to be kept alive in a persistent vegetative state. The Schindlers say those weren’t her wishes and contest the diagnosis, saying their daughter is conscious and could recover.
Her parents’ options continued to narrow as a federal appeals court refused to order the reinsertion of the tube Wednesday. The Schindlers said they would take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Her brother, Bobby Schindler, arrived in the state capital early Wednesday to plead with lawmakers.
“I’m not going to give up hope,” he said. “My family never has. We’ll keep doing what we have to do to somehow get my sister out of this mess.”
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Schiavo parents ‘devastated’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bob and Mary Schindler, the parents of Terri Schiavo, rested at their home Wednesday as their lawyers continued to fight to keep their daughter alive, their spiritual adviser said this morning.
“As you can imagine, they are devastated,” said Brother Paul O’Donnell, a Franciscan friar, outside the Florida hospice where the 41-year-old brain-damaged woman resides.
Another clergyman, the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Washington D.C.-based Christian Defense Coalition, expressed hope that Schiavo’s feeding tube would be restored through a full review by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, or action by the Florida Legislature.
If those efforts fail, Mahoney said, he hopes Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will take Schiavo under protective state custody and have the tube restored.
“Governor Bush,” he said. “You may be Terri’s last hope.”
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Case will go first to Justice Kennedy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thomas J. Perrelli, an attorney for Michael Schiavo, said he believes the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the Terri Schiavo by late afternoon today.
“My sense is (the parents’s lawyers) will file by midday and then we’ll literally file as fast as we can” in response, he said.
The case would first go to Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan appointee who has staked a moderate position on social issues.
Kennedy would have the option to act on the petition alone, although on previous emergency requests involving Terri Schiavo he has referred the matter to the entire nine-member court.
Michael Schiavo won court orders to have his brain-damaged wife’s feeding tube removed.
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Protesters remain outside Schiavo’s hospice
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Pinellas Park, Fla. — A handful of faithful protesters today braved a steady rain with occasional thunder and lightning to stay outside the hospice where Terri Schiavo lies.
Gordon Watts of Lakeland, Fla. , spent the night in his Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Watts has been fasting except for water for three days to show solidarity with Schiavo, whose feeding tube was removed Friday.
“The situation is desperate,” he said after hearing that a panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta had refused to order the feeding tube reinstalled.
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Sheriffs across Georgia review safety procedures
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sheriffs across Georgia spent the weekend and Monday reviewing their own safety procedures, said Terry Norris, executive vice president Georgia Sheriffs’ Association.
“This was a wake up call for us,” he said.
Elected officials also jumped on the issue Monday.
State Sen. Brian Kemp (R-Athens), who is chairman of the Senate Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee, said his committee will be holding hearings on how to improve security at Georgia’s courthouses. On the national level, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote the U.S. Marshals Service, also announcing he plans to hold hearings of protecting judges after the Atlanta shooting and the killing Feb. 28 of the husband and mother of a federal judge in Chicago.
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Injured deputy shows improvement
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fulton County Sheriff’s Deputy Cynthia Hall sat up in a chair for a few hours Monday. When asked how she was feeling, she said, “I’m fine,” according to her doctor, Jeffrey Salomone, a trauma surgeon at Grady Hospital.
Hall was listed in critical but stable condition and remains in the intensive care unit. She remains groggy, but she is communicating with family members.
Hall, who had been on a ventilator, is now breathing on her own, but she will need some rehabilitation for a bruise on her brain, Salomone said.
“The injury has affected her consciousness,” Salomone said. “People just don’t wake up from this like they do on TV. Clearly her brain was damaged … but I’m not expecting it to be permanent.”
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Memorial service held in courtroom
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Nearly 300 courthouse officials and employees gathered in a courtroom for a memorial service late this morning. They all held hands and prayed.
“Everybody is still a little bit lost, a little bit numb,” said Terre McIntosh, court support manager for Fulton County. “We lost some very dear people.”
The workers filled every seat in a courtroom, even filling the jury box and crowding the courtroom entrance to attend a memorial and remembrance service for their slain.
“We are family, and some of us have been together for years,” Doris Downs, a former prosecutor and now Fulton Superior Court judge, told the mourners. She said their colleagues’ murders have generated a “massive outpouring of love and support from across the country, even outside the United States.”
“We’re doing our jobs,” said Superior Court Judge T. Bedford Jackson, “and put ourselves in a position of risk every day. And for that we appreciate each other.”
Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes and court reporter Julie Ann Brandau were shot and killed in the courthouse Friday.
“Rowland was my very dear friend, I loved him, and his loss will leave a deep hole in my heart,” Jackson said.
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Legislators to look at courthouse security statewide
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s piecemeal court security plans may be replaced by a statewide standard in the wake of last week’s deadly courthouse shootings in Atlanta.
Lawmakers say this morning that they’re considering a first-ever set of laws mandating how criminal defendants should be secured in county courthouses.
Last Friday, an accused rapist wrestled a gun away from a sheriff’s deputy at the Fulton County Courthouse and opened fire, leaving a judge and three others dead.
The shootings — and subsequent daylong search for the suspected gunman — put the whole state on edge and has people taking a closer look at courthouse security practices.
As in most of the country, court security in Georgia is under the purview of the county sheriff, and security practices vary courthouse to courthouse — sometimes judge to judge.
But that may change in Georgia. Lawmakers made plans today to set up a summer task force of law enforcement officers to recommend whether a state security standard is needed.
The chairman of the House Public Safety Committee — Republican Burke Day — says he is NOT sure whether a statewide plan is called for. Day is from Chatham County, where deputies do NOT carry firearms in courtrooms. He said counties probably know best how to handle their own security, but that if new laws are called for, they’ll be considered.
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Mistrial declared in rape case against Nichols
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fulton County judges declared two mistrials today in the aftermath of Friday’s killing spree at the downtown courthouse, but one of the decisions was immediately reversed.
Superior Court Judge Stephanie Manis declared a mistrial in the rape case Brian Nichols faced when he allegedly gunned down a judge, court reporter, sheriff’s deputy and later a federal agent.
Superior Court Judge Constance Russell declared a mistrial in the death penalty case of Michael LeJeune, who is accused of settling a 1997 drug debt by killing a Dunwoody man and beheading him.
But the mistrial in LeJeune’s case was aborted after the defense attorney, Brian Steel, changed his mind and said he wanted the existing jury to hear the case.
In the Nichols rape case, in which he is accused of taking an ex-girlfriend hostage and repeatedly assaulting her, Manis appointed a public defender to serve as co-counsel.
The Georgia Public Defender Standards Council had complained that it had not been given access to Nichols while police interviewed him at length after he was captured Saturday.
Gary Parker of the council was named as Nichols’ co-counsel and sought assurances from the judge that he will have access to the murder suspect.
“So we won’t have problems with access to him?” Parker asked. The judge looked across the room at District Attorney Paul Howard and responded, “Mr. Howard will assist you in any way possible.”
Nichols’ current attorney, Barry Hazen, is out of town today but is expected to withdraw from the case, Manis said. “Once his current counsel steps out, we didn’t want there to be a gap in representation,” Parker told the judge.
Parker had asked Manis to toss Hazen off the case because of public statements Hazen made about Nichols — including his assumption that Nichols would have been convicted of rape if he hadn’t made his escape during his trial.
“He has made statements detrimental to his client,” Parker told the judge.
Nichols is expected to have a brief first-appearance hearing before a Fulton County judge on murder charges Tuesday, said Erik Friedly, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office.
In asking for a mistrial in the LeJeune death penalty case, Steel had asked the judge to wait two or three weeks before beginning to pick a new jury. Russell, however, said she would have new potential jurors available next Monday.
Steel discussed the judge’s ability to seat a new jury with LeJeune and asked the judge to void his request for a mistrial and keep the jury that has heard the case since last week.
As the judge prepared to dismiss the court for lunch, prosecutors asked Russell to make sure LeJeune was in agreement with his attorney’s decision not to seek a mistrial.
In a surprise to Steel, LeJeune said he did indeed want a mistrial declared. The judge decided to delay her decision on that request until after Steele and his client had a chance to discuss the matter. LeJeune returned later to say that he agreed with his attorney to continue with his current jury.
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Procession carries body of slain agent
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A hearse bearing the body of slain U.S. customs agent David G. Wilhelm left Tyrone in Fayette County shortly before 11 a.m. Monday. The procession was to travel up I-85 to Salisbury, N.C. Police cars lined part of the route in metro Atlanta.
Wilhelm’s funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Catwaba College Chapel in Salisbury.
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Memorial lists names of the victims
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Alice Grant said she came to the Fulton County Courthouse to help her grandson get a new driver’s license. Grant said she wasn’t afraid to come to the courthouse just three days after Friday’s shootings.
“God takes care of everybody,” Grant said.
A small memorial had been set up at the main entrance to the Fulton County Government Center, across Pryor Street from the courthouse. Ferns and lilies surrounded an easel holding a sign that read, “In Memoriam,” and listed the names of the those killed in Friday’s shootings.
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Don’t let fear rule your life, resident says
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“I’ve been shot at before and hit,” said Fred Innes of Vinings, who was in Vietnam with the Army Corps of Engineers in 1961 and 1962 before the buildup of U.S. troops. “You can’t worry about stuff and you can’t allow some outside source to take over or take care of your life.”
Innes, who came today to examine civil records on the ground floor of the Fulton County Courthouse, said from what he had read and heard in the media, “there was a failure, and the question is was the failure with leadership or in dollars and cents?”
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Employee unnerved by atmosphere
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gloretta Branch, who works in the probation department in the Fulton County Justice Center, came into work Monday morning, but decided she felt too bad to remain at work.
She said she felt queasy, attributed the feeling to nerves, and left to go home. “It’s just sad, maybe I can go home and get myself together,” she said.
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At least one courtroom not yet open
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At 9:30 a.m. the door to Judge Alford J. Dempsey’s courtroom remained locked. The courtroom normally would have been opened at 9 a.m. Lawyers and their clients wondered why they couldn’t enter.
“I think it is going to be quiet today,” said Roswell attorney Birdia Greer, standing in the hallway with her arms crossed.
While waiting for the courtroom to open, she reflected on Friday’s events and the actions of sheriff’s deputies. “I think we need to just have more deputies in the holding tanks. It’s crazy to have one person in a holding tanks, especially a woman.”
Attorney Wade Everett of Cartersville said the scene at the courthouse appeared normal until he arrived at the locked courtroom. “I wondered if they would have a day of mourning.”
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Flowers placed outside slain judge’s courtroom
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Yellow police tape today bars entrance to the eighth-floor courtroom of Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, who was killed in Friday’s shooting at the Fulton County Courthouse.
Two sprays of flowers were propped under the police tape outside the vacant room. A notice outside the courtroom informs attorneys and the public that Judge Barnes’ calendar of pending cases will be heard by Judge Stephanie Manis in the adjoining Justice Center tower.
Sprays of flowers also were on the sidewalk at the southeast corner of Pryor Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
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Howard says other trials shouldn’t be halted
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Liz Markowitz, a supervisor with the Fulton County public defender’s office, stood outside the courthouse at 8:30 a.m. today clutching bouquets of flowers for the victims - friends she had known for years.
“I’m still shaky,” said Markowitz as tears formed.
She was waiting on the sidewalk for a co-worker before working up the courage to reenter the courthouse.
On Friday, Markowitz had advised some of her employees to drop by suspect Brian Nichols’ rape trial to observe a defendant on the stand.
“Thankfully, they don’t listen to me,” she said.
Veteran defense attorney Steve Sadow, coffee in hand, rushed up to the courthouse steps for a hearing in a criminal case that he isn’t sure will go as planned. He wasn’t at the courthouse Friday, but he reflected on the tragedy of losing a fair-minded judge like Rowland Barnes.
“He was a judge you looked forward to being before,” Sadow said.
District Attorney Paul Howard said everyone is somber but continuing on with their duties. He expects some defense attorneys to request mistrials in cases already underway, but he doesn’t believe any trials should be halted. That’s what happened after the Fulton courthouse was evacuated on Sept. 11, he said.
“Jurors said they thought they could still continue and decide the cases based on the facts and not emotion,” Howard said.
Howard is particularly concerned about the death penalty trial of Michael LeJeune, 27. It took more than a month and about 400 potential jurors to pick a jury to decide LeJeune’s fate in the 1997 North Fulton slaying and dismemberment of Ronnie Davis, 39, of Dunwoody.
The state’s key witness, Kelly Anand, 27, was in the middle of answering tough questions by LeJeune’s lawyers when deputies stopped the trial and hurried alarmed jurors to the jury room and Superior Court Judge Constance Russell to her chambers. Defense attorneys, prosecutors, the victim’s family and spectators were locked inside the courtroom for about three hours.
Jurors, who have been sequestered for a week, asked the judge for an explanation. Russell confirmed there had been a gunman on the loose at the courthouse, but she assured them it had nothing to do with LeJeune’s case. Russell sent jurors back to their hotel and told them they would discuss today whether they felt they could continue.
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Judges keep hearings to minimal levels
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Judges at the Fulton County Courthouse are keeping hearings to a minimum today as staff and security adjust to the new realities after Friday’s shooting spree.
Each judge is trying to decide what is “absolutely necessary,” Judge Doris Downs said.
At noon, officials will open a courtroom staffed by grief counselors.
As the courthouse reopened at 8:30 a.m. — almost 72 hours since the shootings — at least 80 people waited in line to get past a security checkpoint set up inside the building.
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‘It could have happened anywhere’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Comments from those entering the Fulton County Courthouse today:
“I don’t worry. If you let things you see on the news every day bother you, you wouldn’t leave your house,” said Tamika Walton of Atlanta, wo was scheduled to be a witness in an aggravated assault case.
“You can’t walk down the street worrying that you’re going to run into a crazy person or get hit by a stray bullet,” she said. “It could have happened anywhere. I put my faith in God, and what happens happens.”
“I have concerns,” countered Pam Anthony, waiting in line at the metal detectors inside the Justice Center as a trio of deputies allowed the public to enter at 8:30. “They couldn’t get it right this last time, what are they going to do to correct the process? It doesn’t sound like a good operation to me,” she said.
“I’m glad to see the courts operating and the courthouse is open,” said Tom Mondelli, an attorney at the Fulton County Conflict Resolution Office, which represents indigent defendants. “I wasn’t sure the courthouse would be open today. It’s heartening to see everything is still operating.”
Franklin Smith, a Buckhead resident and consultant for a medical equipment firm, was in line with his son, who is appearing as a witness in a traffic accident and assault case. “This is probably the safest time to come here,” he said. “I’m sure they have everything bolted down pretty tight,” he said.
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Businessman disappointed by security
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A lengthy line of courthouse employees trailed out onto the sidewalk as they waited to get through security at the Pryor Street entrance to the Fulton County Courthouse.
John Tartt, a manager of Tarrazu Coffee Bar, a half a block from the old courthouse next to the Underground parking garage, said this morning that he watched the scene unfold Friday from his shop. “I was disappointed to hear how security was at the courthouse,” he said. “I would have expected more.”
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‘My babies didn’t want me to come’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Marva Nelson, a prospective juror clutching a book, said her three children, 8, 10 and 13, were worried about their mother going to the downtown Atlanta courthouse. “My babies didn’t want me to come,” adding, “I had second thoughts about coming, but I’m here.”
Jasminne White, a data entry clerk in the district attorney office since August, said that before Friday she thought the courthouse was a pretty safe to work. Now she won’t be able to come to work without trepidation. “I hadn’t had a problem until Friday,” she said as she arrived at the courthouse shortly after 8 a.m. and joined the crowd of employees pouring into the building.
“After this weekend, I didn’t really want to come to work today. I just wanted to lie in bed and watch the news,” she said.
Clerk wishes building wasn’t reopening today
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Fulton County Courthouse was closed to the public until 8:30 a.m. Monday morning. Jurors, attorney and court employees began filtering in about 7:30 a.m.
Jeff Pombert, an attorney from Canton, had not been in the courthouse since September. He arrived, carrying a leather file folder under his arm, at the courthouse about 8 a.m., for a civil mediation. He was not concerned about security. “After an event like Friday, my guess it will be a safer place to come to,” he said as he walked through the Pryor Street entrance.
Other court employees were not so comfortable. Sebrina Lane, a deputy Superior Court clerk, said she never entered the courthouse Friday after seeing the crowds and law enforcement on the sidewalk when she arrived for work. She called her supervisor on her cell phone and was told to return home. She was fearful when she arrived at the courthouse Monday morning. “I definitely didn’t want to come back today,” she said. “I was hoping it would be closed today.”
Lane said security at the courthouse had long been a concern for employees.
“It’s easy to walk in and go everywhere. I don’t think it is secure,” she said.
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Jurors say they don’t want to live in fear
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bessie Warren, one of about 10 prospective State Court jurors who arrived at the Fulton County Courthouse shortly after 7 a.m. today, said she hopes not to be called to serve on a case but had no real fear.
Warren, a College Park homemaker, said she had no real anxiety entering the area near where three people were killed Friday. “I don’t want to live in fear,” she said. “Certainly I was appalled Friday, but if you think about bad things happening all the time, you’re just going to live in fear. I don’t want to do that.”
Warren said she was at a meeting of the World Changes Ministry when she learned about the killings. “I thought it was really terrible and naturally I was sad for the victims’ family and also for his (suspect Brian Nichols’) family. All you can do is pray,” she said.
Terry Laman, a technology salesman from Alpharetta, said he felt confident of his safety. “I’m not worried, not at all. Look, the guy had a motive, a trial wasn’t going his way and I figured he had the opportunity to do what he wanted to do.
Shaking his head he added, “It’s another sad chapter in Atlanta’s history.”
“This is probably the safest place to be this morning,” said Steve Floyd of Roswell, waiting in the Justice Center lobby with other prospective jurors. Was he serious about the justice complex being the safest place? “Today, yes. A year from now, maybe not. Who knows?” he responded.
Cheryl Vortice, a court clerk’s employee, said she had come into the Justice Center Saturday and felt discomforted by seeing signs still up from Friday that the building had been evacuated. “It made me feel strange seeing that,” she said.
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TV news trucks surround quiet courthouse
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There were no obvious signs of extra security outside the Fulton County Courthouse today.
You would never know that Friday’s mayhem had occurred unless you looked across Martin Luther King Jr. Drive where at least eight TV news trucks from both local stations and national networks were parked.
At the corner of Central Avenue and MLK Drive, Ashley Smith, the Gwinnett County woman taken hostage by the suspect, was being interviewed live by NBC’s “Today”show.
A young man standing behind her was led away and handcuffed by a police officer after he refused a network official’s request that he move. He said he was on a public sidewalk and had a right to be there.
The man, who worked for another television network, was released by police a few minutes later after apologizing and agreeing to leave. He then got in his car and left.
Immediately after her “Today” interview, Smith, wearing a pink jacket, khaki pants and black gloves, was interviewed on CBS’ morning show. Smith continued to give interviews to other media outlets for at least 45 minutes. At 8 a.m Smith was hustled away from the courthouse by several people from her lawyer’s office and was driven away in a red Ford Explorer driven by Richard Hyde, chief investigator for the law firm Balch & Bingham.
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New world, realities at courthouse
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This morning marks the beginning of a new world at the Fulton County Courthouse — despite Fulton Sheriff Myron Freeman’s assertion that things would be “business as usual.” Just days after the shootings at the courthouse, several judges have decided to take safety matters into their own hands.
“It can’t be business as usual,” said Superior Court Judge Stephanie Manis, who met with some other judges Sunday to discuss courthouse security. “It would be absurd to even think that.”
Manis expects her courtroom to be packed with accused felons for a status check on their criminal cases today, the day court resumes. Friday’s shootings caused several trials to be halted.
Manis said she will assemble her staff and the deputy assigned to her courtroom today to tour the holding cell and discuss security. “I’m concerned about reassuring prosecutors, defense attorneys and other inmates that we have done all we can to make the courtroom safe,” she said.
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Don Samuel: Trial should be moved
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If shooting suspect Brian Nichols is formally charged with murder, as expected, in Fulton County, his trial should be held somewhere else, a prominent Atlanta criminal defense attorney said.
“They need to move this case out of Fulton County and get a judge from out of Fulton County,” defense attorney Don Samuel said. Because Nichols allegedly killed Fulton Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, all of Barnes’ colleagues must recuse themselves from the case, he said.
Not only will there be enormous problems selecting an impartial jury because of pre-trial publicity, Samuel said, it also will be extremely difficult trying Nichols in the same courthouse with bailiffs who were colleagues of slain Sgt. Hoyt Teasley and Cynthia Hall, the deputy Nichols allegedly pistol-whipped. Samuel, emphasizing he was not being critical of anyone’s motives at the Fulton courthouse, said the case should be moved out of Atlanta to avoid the appearance of impropriety.
“The appearance is important as the process,” Samuel said. “That’s why we have a criminal justice system instead of vigilante justice.”
Samuel also questioned whether Fulton District Attorney Paul Howard should step aside and let another DA try the case, citing allegations that Nichols also was targeting the Fulton prosecutor who was trying him on rape and violent crime charges. “If I were giving Paul Howard advice, I’d say: Consider yourself a victim and let another DA try the case.”
Similarly, if Nichols is indicted on federal charges for killing slain U. S. immigration and customs agent David Wilhelm, this case also should be moved out of Atlanta, perhaps out of Georgia, to try and get an impartial jury, Samuel said.
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Feds file firearms charge against Nichols
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said that a federal criminal complaint was filed against Brian Nichols earlier today charging him with possessing a firearm while being under indictment.
This is little more than a “holding charge,” Nahmias said, to ensure Nichols’ detention while federal and state authorities decide what charges to bring next.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said Nichols also is expected to make his first court appearance during the early week. Howard also said he wanted to resolve the rape trial Nichols is accused of disrupting on Friday by fatally shooting trial judge Rowland Barnes, his courtroom stenographer Julie Brandau and deputy Hoyt Teasley.
Howard added that he expects to file formal charges against Nichols within the next 30 days, after allowing Atlanta police and other law enforcement agencies to complete their investigations.
Nahmias said his office would prosecute Nichols for the killing of David Wilhelm, assistant special agent in charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Atlanta. But he said Howard would take the lead in charging decisions.
“We’re examining all potential charges,” Nahmias said. “We’re less than 36 hours into this event. We’re going to do this in a very careful and cautious way.”
Kenneth Smith, special agent of ICE, called Wilhelm’s death “a tragic loss for the entire law enforcement community.” Wilhelm, whose brother Patrick also is an ICE special agent in Atlanta, was “an exemplary officer, a trusted colleague and a true friend,” said Smith, struggling to maintain his composure.
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Neighbors react to Barnes’ death
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Fulton County Sheriff’s deputy sat in his patrol car in the driveway of the College Park home of Judge Rowland Barnes. Family members declined to talk about Barnes or the news of Brian Nichols’ capture.
Barnes and his wife Claudia live in the Historic College Park area, about a mile from downtown College Park in south Fulton County.
Neighbors say they are relieved that Nichols is no longer at large.
“I’m glad he’s caught,” said 90-year-old Sallie Richey, who lives across Lyle Road from the Barnes home on Flowers Drive. Richey has lived on the block for 47 years, and knew Barnes for at least 35 years.
“I didn’t know anyone in this neighborhood who didn’t like him,” she said.
Across the street, Stephen Howard, 14, bounced a basketball in the street on a warm March Saturday afternoon. He said Barnes was kind to him.
“He always said ‘hey’ when he walked past,” Howard said. “He always worked in the yard with his wife.”
Wendy DeJong just moved onto Flowers Drive last summer, and she didn’t yet get to meet Barnes. But she was still shaken by his killing.
“A judge?” said DeJong, 36, a mechanic for Delta Air Lines. “A judge is a symbol of law and order and civility. It’s just the most heinous crime.”
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Carpenters find agent’s body
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The break that ultimately led authorities to Brian G. Nichols came Saturday morning when two carpenters showed up for work.
Brothers Felix and Martin Salazar, carpenters from Mexico, reported to work about 8 a.m. on a house being built by David G. Wilhelm, a high-ranking investigator with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Atlanta. Martin Salazar, 41, said in an interview that he and his brother saw a house door open and caught sight of Wilhelm’s body lying on the floor about eight feet away.
He said he and his brother called out “David! David!” but got no answer. He said Wilhelm lay on his back with his eyes open, hands resting on his chest. Salazar said they left without entering the house and called a contractor and talked with neighbors until police arrived. He said he and his brother noticed a small amount of blood in the garage but did not get close enough to Wilhelm’s body to have an idea about how he died.
Several weeks ago, when Wilhelm first met the Salazar brothers and learned they were from Mexico, he told them about a church mission trip he had taken to that country, Salazar said.
“He seemed like a good guy,” he said.
Salazar said he and his brother did not see Wilhelm’s pickup at the house, which apparently triggered a search by authorities. That pickup, a blue 1994 Chevrolet pickup truck, later turned up at the Gwinnett County apartments where police captured Nichols.
Salazar said he last saw Wilhelm alive about 5 p.m. Friday, when the two men chatted at the house Wilhelm was building. He said Wilhelm talked about the killings Friday of a judge, court reporter and sheriff’s deputy in downtown Atlanta.
“He said ‘Did you hear what happened? Somebody killed a judge and some other people,’” Salazar said in Spanish. “He was sad. He told us to be careful. He said there are a lot of crazy people out there.”
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Judge’s neighbors relieved suspect in custody
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Fulton County Sheriff’s deputy sat in his patrol car in the driveway of the College Park home of Judge Rowland Barnes. Family members declined to talk about Barnes or the news of Brian Nichols’ capture.
Barnes and his wife, Claudia, live in the Historic College Park area, about a mile from downtown College Park in south Fulton County.
Neighbors say they are relieved that Nichols is no longer at large.
“I’m glad he’s caught,” said 90-year-old Sallie Richey, who lives across Lyle Road from the Barnes home on Flowers Drive. Richey has lived on the block for 47 years, and knew Barnes for at least 35 years.
“I didn’t know anyone in this neighborhood who didn’t like him,” she said.
Across the street, Stephen Howard, 14, bounced a basketball in the street on a warm March Saturday afternoon. He said Barnes was kind to him.
“He always said ‘hey’ when he walked past,” Howard said. “He always worked in the yard with his wife.”
Wendy DeJong moved to Flowers Drive last summer, and she didn’t yet get to meet Barnes. But she was still shaken by his death.
“A judge?” said DeJong, 36, a mechanic for Delta Air Lines. “A judge is a symbol of law and order and civility. It’s just the most heinous crime.”
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Defender says access to Nichols denied
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Chris Adams, head of the office of the Georgia Capital Defender, tried unsuccessfully to visit Brian Nichols this afternoon at police headquarters and advise him of his rights.
“We were denied access to see our client,” said Adams, whose office represents indigent defendants facing state death-penalty charges. “We have a statutory mandate to represent people facing the the death penalty in Georgia. Mr. Nichols is facing the death penalty in Georgia.”
Nichols, who was arrested after turning himself over to authorities, has yet to appear before a judge.
Atlanta criminal defense attorney Dwight Thomas expressed certainty that prosecutors — both federal and state — will seek the death penalty against Nichols. The only question is where Nichols will be tried first, in Fulton County Superior Court or in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, he said.
Details of the capture
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Charlie Waters, Gwinnett County Police chief, held a press conference Saturday afternoon providing details of the capture of Brian Nichols Saturday morning at Bridgewater Apartments.
Waters said Nichols was in the apartment of a woman whom he did not know, a situation that he described as “stranger on stranger.” Nichols is believed to have come to the apartment randomly sometime during the night after federal agents say he killed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent David Wilhelm in a house in Buckhead. Wilhelm’s truck was found parked in the Bridgewater Apartments complex.
Waters said the woman, whom he did not identify, somehow escaped her apartment this morning and called 911 at about 9:50 a.m. She told dispatchers that Nichols was in her apartment. Gwinnett police, FBI agents and others responded to the scene and surrounded the apartment. Waters said Nichols gave up peacefully, waving a T-shirt to let police know he wanted to surrender. Waters said Nichols was watching television in the apartment, and saw the police swarming the area. Waters said they recovered weapons in the apartment.
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Suspect taken to City Hall East
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At about 1:20 p.m., Brian Nichols was driven from FBI headquarters in DeKalb County to Atlanta City Hall East, where Atlanta police have their homicide unit. He was booked for the murders of Judge Rowland Barnes, Deputy Hoyt Teasley and court reporter Julia Ann Brandau, as well as other charges. He was expected to remain in federal custody after the booking.
Nichols was taken into custody about 11:30 a.m. at an apartment complex in Gwinnett County. He was arrested without incident by Gwinnett County S.W.A.T. officers. He was handcuffed and driven under heavy guard to FBI regional headquarters, on Clairmont Road in DeKalb County, where he was charged with the murder of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent David Wilhelm, who was found shot to death in a house in Buckhead Saturday morning. Wilhelm’s blue pickup truck apparently was stolen by Nichols, who then drove it to Gwinnett.
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Almeta Kilgo’s first-person account
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Almeta Kilgo, 37, is a computer programmer for the Atlanta-Journal Constitution whose car was stolen by a man believed to be Brian Nichols on Friday morning. Kilgo left her Decatur home about 8:45, listening to gospel CDs as she drove to work in her 2004 silver gray Mercury Sable. Here is her account:
I was coming down Marietta Street about 9:15 to turn onto Cone Street. I probably saw the wrecker — a white tow truck — behind me, but didn’t pay any attention. I turned into the Cone Street Garage. Nobody was checking IDs on the cars.
I went up to the fourth level. A few people had pulled in before me.
I was backing into my parking place when I noticed the tow truck up there on the fourth level. It was confusing. Was I going to get a ticket for something? Was he towing somebody? Was he getting ready to ask directions?
He pulled into a parking place across from me and jumped out of the tow truck as I was opening the car door. He came over, put a gun to my head, and told me to “move over.”
I just looked at him. I blanked out. This was crazy.
He said, “Hurry up, hurry up, get over.”
My car has a stick in the middle. I had to climb over that. I was still dazed. As I was climbing over, my mind was saying, “This is for real.”
I was trying to figure out how to get out.
I climbed over to the passenger side and he got in on the driver’s side. He said, “You better not open that door.”
He put my car in drive, and proceeded to go back down the ramp. I was in the car with him. He got down to the third level, but he didn’t turn to go on down the ramp. He went straight.
He said, “How do you get out of here? How do you get out of here?”
He had to stop. There was nowhere to go.
He said, “I tell you what — you get out and get in the trunk.”
He kept saying, “Get in the trunk.”
He popped my trunk.
I started to run, screaming at the top of my lungs.
Unfortunately, I fell. I was still screaming.
He came up, put a gun to my head, and said, “Shut up. Shut up.” He had the gun right in my face.
I was still screaming.
He kept saying, “Shut up.” I kept screaming.
At that point, I might as well. If I was going to go out, I was going out screaming.
For some reason, he turned around and went back to my car. I went over toward the elevator into the corner screaming.
It took a long time for anybody to get out of car and see what was wrong with me.
I saw him come back around the corner in my car with the trunk lid still up. If I had been thinking, maybe I could have set off the alarm. I was too upset. He came on around, and somehow got out of the garage. The trunk was wide open. Eventually a lady came to see about me, and a man came. I was totally out of it.
I said, “That guy in the tow truck just took my car. He put a gun to my head and took my car. Didn’t y’all see?”
The parking attendants were the last people to show up.
I think he took my car over to Centennial and carjacked Don (O’Briant, an AJC reporter whose green Honda Civic was the subject of police bulletins Friday). The manager of the parking garage came. They called police. We went down to the little office.
I kept looking at the clock. I had a 9:30 meeting. I was trying to get into work before the meeting.
It wasn’t too long before the police came and started asking me what happened. They went up to see the tow truck.
And it wasn’t long after that, Don came walking over. They were talking to me and he walked in. He was covered with blood. We knew then that the guy had ditched my car and took his.
I was sitting there in the office of the Cone Street Garage. The police, reporters, everybody was swarming around. I heard somebody say, “He’s killed two people down at the courthouse.”
That just tore me up.
Since this was a homicide investigation, a homicide detective came and talked to me and tried to get information about my car. They took me down to the police station on Ponce de Leon so they could get a formal written statement from me.
I guess I was down there until about 1 or 1:30.
A good friend of mine came to get me. I went over to some relatives’ house for awhile. Got home about six.
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Tow truck driver tells of dramatic confrontation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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 a few minutes after 9 a.m. The driver pulled into a parking deck behind him, and waited.
Seconds later, two police cars followed and stopped at the corner. One was an Atlanta police car and the other was Fulton County sheriff’s car, Franklin said. He showed them where the suspect was hiding.
“I pointed directly into the parking deck and they went in,” said Franklin, 37.
As the police cars entered the parking deck, the suspect burst through the mechanical arm and sped in.
“Three more officers [in vehicles] came up and said ‘Which way did he go?’ I told them ‘He went right up in there.’”
Franklin said the next thing he knew, the SUV driver was at his window pointing a gun at him.
In a calm voice, the gunman said “Get out of the truck.”
“You can have the truck,” Franklin said.
Franklin said the gunman was not visibly upset or sweating. He wore a turquoise green or blue suede jogging suit. Franklin watched as the man got in the tow truck and sped north on Peachtree Street, then took a left turn in the wrong direction on Walton Street, a one-way street near Five Points.
After hearing about the wake of death the gunman left, Franklin said “I’m surprised he didn’t shoot me then. I was just fortunate.”
A Tow Atlanta Inc. CEO Page Porter said the company’s truck was found at 98 Cone St.
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Visitors bureau: Isolated incident
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Operators of downtown Atlanta’s hotels and attractions put extra security personnel and procedures in place after Friday morning’s shootings at the Fulton County courthouse.
“We understand, as an industry, that we entertain millions of people a year, and the perception of danger in a city is a perception that might hurt the city,” said Bill Howard, spokesman for the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau. “There are many visitors in town for the SEC [basketball] championships this weekend. We need to make sure people remain safe and are able to move around the city. And we don’t want them to feel like there’s a lockdown going on.”
For the most part, visitors don’t seem to be judging Atlanta harshly for this one violent event, Howard said. He hopes other potential visitors, many of whom likely watched reports of the shooting on national news networks, will be similarly understanding.
“This was a random act by a person who is pretty desperate,” Howard said.
“People understand that unfortunately, those things can occur and can occur anywhere. I don’t think they’ll judge Atlanta particularly harshly.”
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Perdue offers $10,000 reward for apprehension
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The governor made the announcement hours after a shooting spree left three dead at the Fulton County Courthouse.
Authorities are searching for Brian Nichols, 33, last seen driving a carjacked green Honda Accord.
The governor’s announcement in part read, “Brian Nichols is presumed to be an extreme danger to the community and the citizens of Georgia and it is critical that he be taken into custody as soon as possible.”
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Hundreds of officers in manhunt
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
More than 100 state troopers and other officers from hundreds of other 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.
”We’re getting assistance from a tremendous number of agencies and people,” Stiles said.
A law enforcement staging area was set up in the Roswell area, north of Atlanta, where suspect Brian Nichols had last lived before he was arrested on the rape and other charges.
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Family friend describes judge as ‘open’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Around 3 p.m., family friend and Fulton Juvenile Court Judge Sanford Jones stepped out of Rowland Barnes’ College Park home to speak on behalf of the family.
First, he passed along the family’s request for some privacy. Then he described the man who family, friends and neighbors had been mourning inside the modest, red-brick home since this morning.
Barnes was well-liked, a “prankster, a good judge and a good human,” said Jones, who has known Barnes for 25 years. Jones performed the marriage ceremony for Barnes and his second wife, Claudia, about 15 years ago.
“He did not change when he went on the bench. He did not get robotic,” Jones said. “He was open to everyone.
“That openness — that might have been part of the cause of this. He was so open,” said Jones, perhaps alluding to the fact that the suspect in the shootings was unshackled in the courtroom.
“It was his manner in court to treat everyone appropriately and with dignity, and when you left his court, you knew you had been treated that way,” Jones said.
“He was doing what he loved doing, but [his death] was premature.”
Claudia Barnes — who works for another judge as an administrative assistant — was in the courthouse when the shooting occurred, Jones said. She has worked in the court system for 25 years, serving as an assistant to Jones during some of that time, he said.
Jones described the family as “all very upset.”
“This is all very tragic, sudden and unexpected, but they’re doing better than I would be,” he said. He said Barnes is survived by his wife, two adult daughters, some stepchildren and two brothers.
Zell Miller lauds Judge Barnes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Retired U.S. Sen. Zell Miller was governor when he appointed Fulton Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes to the bench, and on Friday he recalled the judge as a straight shooting “man of great integrity.”
“I knew the judge well. It was one of my proudest appointments,” Miller said. “He’d had a lot of experience as a municipal judge in his younger days and he knew how to conduct a court,” Miller said. “All of the lawyers, on either side, they really liked appearing before him because they knew they’d get a fair shake and that he’d (conduct his court) with no nonsense and, in fact, sometimes with a little humor.
Barnes, Miller recalled, had a way of “putting the lawyers and the jury at ease and making it as good, as straight-forward a procedure as he could.”
“He was an excellent, excellent judge,” Miller said. “I’m very, very sorry this has happened to him.”
Atlanta police set up numbers for tips
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Assistant Atlanta Police Chief Alan Dreher released tipline numbers for people to call if they have information on the whereabouts of shooting suspect Brian Nichols.
If you have information on Nichols’ whereabouts, police ask that you call 404-730-7982, 404-730-7983, 404-730-7984, 404-730-7985, and a toll free number 1-888-6-FULTON.
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Police reopen streets; rush hour off to smooth start
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No major traffic problems are expected during rush hour this afternoon resulting from the shootings this morning at Fulton County Courthouse.
As of 3 p.m., police are stationed along I-75 near the Windy Hill exit and near I-285 to help facilitate traffic movement.
“That seems to be the biggest concentration as far as we’re aware,” said David Spear, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.
Streets in downtown Atlanta have reopened.
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SEC Dome crowd abuzz over shootings
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The excitement level inside the Georgia Dome for the first game of the SEC Tournament was well below that of the rest of the downtown area, but that was due to subdued reaction to the Alabama-Mississippi game, not the courthouse shooting nearby.
Perry Perkins of New Orleans and his friend Lisa Perkins of Canyon Lake, Texas, took MARTA from Vinings at about 10:30 a.m. They saw police cars racing down a street at about 90 mph, Perry Perkins estimated, with no sirens or lights. “We just thought it was the Atlanta cops,” said Perry Perkins, who was wearing Mississippi State clothing.
They found out about the shooting from a friend as they approached the Dome, but didn’t turn back even with three helicopters hovering.
“You know it’s close, but it’s not in your parking lot,’ said Lisa Perkins. Added Perry Perkins, “You have to live your life.”
However, Lisa Perkins did think the Dome would be a perfect place “to come incognito. You’re at a sporting event and can come in and hide.”
But she added, “You’ve gotta have a ticket.”
Tickets were sold out.
Atlanta police at the Dome said fans were approaching them to ask if the man had been caught or what was happening.
Before the games began, some of the televisions in the bathrooms were tuned to CNN so fans could follow developments.
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Police still seek green Honda Accord
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Authorities are sharing more info about the hunt for shooting spree suspect Brian Nichols.
Deputy Atlanta Police Chief Alan Dreher said one weapon and shell casings have been found outside the downtown Fulton County Courthouse.
Authorities are still looking for a green Honda Accord, he told reporters this afternoon.
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Perdue statement laments loss of life
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Sonny Perdue issued the following statement:
“Mary and I offer our condolences to the family, friends and associates of Judge Barnes and the brave criminal justice personnel who lost their lives today at the Fulton County Courthouse. These public servants dedicated themselves to delivering sound justice and gave their lives to upholding the principles of our legal system. We honor their service to Fulton County and our state.
“Judge Barnes was a conscientious judge who fully appreciated his role in making the ideals set forth in the Constitution and laws of this state tangible and meaningful to everyday citizens. He will be sorely missed.
“I encourage all Georgians to continue praying for the speedy recovery of those injured during today’s tragic events.”
Perdue directed all flags lowered to half-staff on all Capitol Hill buildings and grounds.
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Judge’s neighbor says ‘heart is broke’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
College Park resident Enriqueta R. Lineres, who lives next door to Judge Rowland Barnes, was walking back from the store about 11:30 a.m. when she saw a hearse and a police cruiser parked in front of Barnes’ house.
She asked a reporter standing in front of the house what was happening. When she heard the news, she immediately started crying.
“He is a good neighbor, Mr. Roland,” said Lineres, who moved to the neighborhood in 1998.
She said Barnes looked after her house when she had to return to Mexico, and he and his wife, Claudia, are always checking in on her.
“Oh. Jesus. Oh, Lord. Why?” Lineres said. “My heart is broke. My neighbor [Rowland Barnes] protected me.”
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Atlanta, DeKalb, Forsyth schools take precautions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Public School system has put four Buckhead schools under lockdown due to the manhunt under way for the suspect in the shooting at the Fulton County Courthouse: Jackson Elementary, Sutton Middle, Sara Smith Elementary and the Sara Smith kindergarten annex.
Additionally, all DeKalb County schools have been ordered to keep their exterior doors locked.
Under restricted lockdown, movement within the school continues as normal, but the doors are locked and manned by security personnel to restrict entry to the building. The decision on which schools to lock down was made based on the latest information APS has received from the Atlanta Police Department about the possible movement of the suspect, school officials said.
Fulton County schools are not in session today.
Atlanta had earlier put 36 schools under lockdown, including the four Buckhead schools. But shortly before 1 p.m. the district removed 32 schools from the lockdown list.
The Atlanta schools originally put under lockdown are under lockdown are:
Elementary Schools: Adamsville, Bethune, Blalock, Bolton Academy, Boyd, Brandon, Centennial Place, Garden Hills, Grove Park, Fain, Finch, Hill, Herndon, Jackson, Jones, Miles Oglethorpe, Peyton Forest, Rivers, Scott, Smith, Smith Kindergarten Annex, F.L. Stanton, Towns, Usher, White, Williams, Woodson, Carson Honors Preparatory.
Middle Schools: Harper/Archer, Kennedy, Sutton, Turner.
High Schools: Douglass, North Atlanta, Washington.
As a precaution, Clayton County school officials locked down the Brown Elementary School at 9771 Poston Road in Jonesboro.
“It is our understanding that [shooting suspect Brian Nichols] has relatives or that there is some family connection near the school and we just want to make sure our students are safe,” said school district spokesman Charles White.
Forsyth County officials put all schools in that county on lockdown at 12:35 p.m., Forsyth schools spokeswoman Jennifer Caracciolo said. Officials planned to release students at the regularly scheduled times Friday afternoon, she said.
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SEC tournament monitors crowd after shooting
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The 51 uniformed officers working security at the SEC tournament went on high alert Friday morning after the shootings at the Fulton County Courthouse.
Atlanta Police Lt. K.A. Anderson redeployed many of the Atlanta police officers, Georgia State Patrol and Fulton County Sheriff’s officers from inside to outside the Georgia Dome.
“We did it to monitor the crowd better in case the suspect did come in the area,” said Anderson, police coordinator for the Dome. There was no evidence that he did come near the Dome, Anderson said.
Officers received flyers with identifying information about the suspect they were looking for, and they monitored a common Georgia Dome radio frequency for updates.
SEC tournament director Brad Davis watched CNN coverage from a TV at courtside during warm-ups before the opening quarterfinal game between Alabama and Ole Miss. Dome officials had called Davis in his hotel room minutes after the shootings to discuss security plans.
The Georgia Dome’s 290 yellow-jacketed security officers were not redeployed, said Kevin Duvall, assistant general manager of the Dome.
SEC tournament security is usually a straightforward affair.
“It’s a real peaceful crowd,” Anderson said. “It’s a college crowd. It’s a family crowd.”
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Wounded deputy expected to survive
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dr. Jeffrey Salomone, one of the attending trauma surgeons at Grady Memorial Hospital, said the mortally wounded deputy was brought into the hospital at 9:24 a.m. with a single gunshot wound to the abdomen.
“He had no vital signs when he arrived here, and despite our resuscitative efforts, he was pronounced dead at about 9:34,” Salomone said. “About that time, a second Fulton County sheriff’s deputy arrived.”
The second deputy, Salomone said, “appeared to have a single gunshot wound to the head.”
Salomone said the bullet did not enter the deputy’s skull.
“She has a small bruise on her brain and some fractures around her face,” the doctor said. “It appears that after being shot, the deputy perhaps fell to the ground, receiving some of those fractures to her head.”
He said that while that deputy is in critical condition, “she is expected to survive the injuries.”
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Atlanta, DeKalb schools under lockdown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Public School system has put four Buckhead schools under lockdown due to the manhunt under way for the suspect in the shooting at the Fulton County Courthouse: Jackson Elementary, Sutton Middle, Sara Smith Elementary and the Sara Smith kindergarten annex.
Additionally, all DeKalb County schools have been ordered to keep their exterior doors locked.
Under restricted lockdown, movement within the school continues as normal, but the doors are locked and manned by security personnel to restrict entry to the building. The decision on which schools to lock down was made based on the latest information APS has received from the Atlanta Police Department about the possible movement of the suspect, school officials said.
Fulton County schools are not in session today.
Atlanta had earlier put 36 schools under lockdown, including the four Buckhead schools. But shortly before 1 p.m. the district removed 32 schools from the lockdown list.
The Atlanta schools originally put under lockdown are under lockdown are:
Elementary Schools: Adamsville, Bethune, Blalock, Bolton Academy, Boyd, Brandon, Centennial Place, Garden Hills, Grove Park, Fain, Finch, Hill, Herndon, Jackson, Jones, Miles Oglethorpe, Peyton Forest, Rivers, Scott, Smith, Smith Kindergarten Annex, F.L. Stanton, Towns, Usher, White, Williams, Woodson, Carson Honors Preparatory.
Middle Schools: Harper/Archer, Kennedy, Sutton, Turner
High Schools: Douglass, North Atlanta, Washington.
As a precaution, Clayton County school officials locked down the Brown Elementary School at 9771 Poston Road in Jonesboro.
“It is our understanding that [shooting suspect Brian Nichols] has relatives or that there is some family connection near the school and we just want to make sure our students are safe,” said school district spokesman Charles White.
Permalink | Categories: Courthouse shooting
Judge’s wife asks for privacy; neighbor in shock
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Judge Rowland Barnes’ neighbor, Sallie Richey, moved into their Colleg Park neighborhood 47 years ago. Barnes and his family moved into their one-story, red brick house soon after, said Richey, 90, whose daughter was friends with the judge’s daughter.
“He was a good neighbor,” she said. “We’ve been knowing him for more than 40 years, and everybody loved him.
“He was a lawyer in College Park for years,” Richey said. “When any of us had a little problem, we’d always go to Roland.”
She still was absorbing the news of Barnes’ violent death.
“I went to sleep last night with the TV on. I woke up a little after 9, and that’s all that was on,” she said.
The modest section of Lyle Road where Barnes lived is lined by older homes on small, tree-filled lots. About an hour after the shooting, nobody answered the door at the house, fronted by a porch with a swing.
Around noon, police pulled up in what appeared to be Barnes’ Isuzu Rodeo and parked it in the driveway.
At 12:50, College Park Police Deputy Chief Lewis B. Harper told a reporter that Claudia Barnes, the judge’s wife, had requested the media respect her privacy and that she did not want to make a statement at the time.
“She’s still coming to grips with it,” Harper said, then shaking his head added, “A thing like that in a courtroom.”
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Governor, Fulton sheriff pledge to catch suspect
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At 12:45 p.m., Gov. Sonny Perdue and Fulton County Sheriff Myron Freeman briefed reporters outside Grady Memorial Hospital, pledging to bring suspect Brian Nichols to justice.
Freeman was tightlipped about details of the hunt for the suspect. “This is a very sad day for Fulton County…. our prayers go out to the families.”
Perdue said the state is assisting Fulton County, including agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and state patrol. Perdue, too, offered his condolences to those killed in Thursday’s shooting at the Fulton County Courthouse.
A hospital surgeon described unsuccessful attempts to revive one victim. A wounded sheriff’s deputy, who suffered facial injuries, was listed in critical condition. She is expected to survive, the Grady doctor said.
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SWAT police surround Sandy Springs building
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dozens of federal, state and local law enforcement officers have surrounded a commercial building and small apartment complex off of Roswell Road near Lake Placid Drive in the Sandy Springs area.
ATF and other federal agents, as well as local police dressed in SWAT gear, are patrolling the area along with at least one helicopter.
Police at the scene refused comment.
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‘You can’t stop every crazy guy’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fulton County public defenders Joshua Schiffer and Matthew Welch were in the courthouse when the shootings occurred. Both were directed to the ninth-floor sheriff’s office, where they were sequestered with other court employees while the building was searched.
“It was extremely frightening, harrowing, to not know if someone is in the courthouse with a gun,” Welch said.
They listened to chatter on the deputies’ radios and watched news reports of the incident while they waited. “Everybody was on their cell phones trying to get a handle on what had happened,” Schiffer said.
After about 30 minutes, they were told they could leave the building.
Both men said they felt safe in the courthouse. Usually two or three deputies are in a courtroom for a criminal trial, although at times there has been only one, Schiffer said.
“Every single day we come to work we trust them to protect us,” he said.
“They’ve never let me down.”
“People are prone to do very rash things sometime,” Schiffer said. “These incidents are going to happen every blue moon. You can’t stop every crazy guy.”
Permalink | Categories: Courthouse shooting
Atlanta, DeKalb schools locked down
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Public School system has put 36 school under restricted lockdown due to the manhunt under way for the suspect in the shooting at Fulton County Courthouse. Additionally, all DeKalb county schools have been ordered to keep their exterior doors locked.
Under restricted lockdown, movement within the school continues as normal, but the doors are locked and manned by security personnel to restrict entry to the building. The decision on which schools to lock down was made based on the latest information APS has received from the Atlanta Police Department about the possible movement of the suspect, school officials said.
Fulton County schools are not in session today.
The Atlanta schools that are under lockdown are:
Elementary schools: Adamsville, Bethune, Blalock, Bolton Academy, Boyd, Brandon, Centennial Place, Garden Hills, Grove Park, Fain, Finch, Hill, Herndon, Jackson, Jones, Miles Oglethorpe, Peyton Forest, Rivers, Scott, Smith, Smith Kindergarten Annex, F.L. Stanton, Towns, Usher, White, Williams, Woodson, Carson Honors Preparatory.
Middle schools: Harper/Archer, Kennedy, Sutton, Turner.
High schools: Douglass, North Atlanta, Washington.
As a precaution, Clayton County school officials locked down the Brown Elementary School at 9771 Poston Road in Jonesboro.
“It is our understanding that [shooting suspect Brian Nichols] has relatives or that there is some family connection near the school and we just want to make sure our students are safe,” said school district spokesman Charles White.
Permalink | Categories: Courthouse shooting
DeKalb judge recalls representing Nichols
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When DeKalb County Recorders Court Judge R. Joy Walker first heard Nichols’ name on the morning news, she said to herself, “how do I know that name? I know that name.”
Moments later, when Nichols’ picture flashed on the TV screen, she remembered.
“When I saw him, I said, ‘Oh my God, I represented him,’” said Wlker, chief judge of the court that handles traffic and county ordinance violations.
Walker, a former public defender, represented Nichols while he was on probation from 1996 to 1999 for felony drug charges in Cobb County. When he was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for possession of marijuana, she represented him at his probation revocation hearing.
“He was very respectable to me,” Walker said.
She said Nichols had a girlfriend at the time. “She was a very nice young lady, very respectable,” Walker said. The judge refused to revoke Nichols’ probation based on flimsy evidence, according to Walker.
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Police circle Clayton neighborhood
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Clayton County police officers circled a south Jonesboro neighborhood Friday morning where shooting suspect Brian Nichols may live.
The community of one-story brick houses on large lots is less than two miles from the Clayton County Jail.
A Clayton sheriff’s deputy was parked in front of nearby Brown Elementary School.
Permalink | Categories: Courthouse shooting
Tow truck driver tells of dramatic confrontation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Deronta Franklin, a tow-truck driver, was waiting for a dispatch at Peachtree and Wall streets in downtown Atlanta when he saw a dark SUV round the corner and hit the curb. The driver pulled into a parking deck behind him, and waited.
Seconds later, two police cars followed and stopped at the corner.
“I pointed directly into the parking deck and they went in,” said Franklin, 37.
The suspect burst through the garage gate and sped in.
“Three more officers [in vehicles] came up and said ‘Which way did he go?’ I told them ‘He went right up in there.’”
Franklin said the next thing he knew, the SUV driver was at his window pointing a gun at him. “He told me to get out of the truck and I told him he could have the truck,” Franklin said.
Franklin said the gunman was about 6 feet 1 inch, about 200 lbs, and was wearing turquoise green or blue suede jogging suit. Franklin watched as the man got in his truck and sped north on Peachtree Street, and took a left in the wrong direction on Walton Street, a one-way street.
After hearing about the wake of death the man left, Franklin said “I’m surprised he didn’t shoot then. I was just fortunate.”
A Tow Atlanta Inc. CEO Page Porter said the company’s truck was later found at 98 Cone St.
Permalink | Categories: Courthouse shooting
Dozens of schools are closed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As many as 40 metro Atlanta schools were closed today during the manhunt for the courthouse shooting suspect.
Clayton County school officials locked down the Brown Elementary School at 9771 Poston Road in Jonesboro.
“It is our understanding that [shooting suspect Brian Nichols] has relatives or that there is some family connection near the school and we just want to make sure our students are safe,� said school district spokesman Charles White.
All Fulton County schools have also been closed.
Permalink | Categories: Courthouse shooting
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