AJC.com > Breaking News > Archives > 2005 > March > 11 > Entry
‘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
Services »
