Who is to blame in Atlanta escape ?

[THE KOD]

Who was in charge of search?
Atlanta police took over 1 hour after shootings

By TY TAGAMI
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/17/05

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin acknowledged Wednesday that city police did not take control of the manhunt for Brian G. Nichols until about an hour after the start of the shooting spree at the Fulton County Courthouse that left a judge and two others dead.

In the aftermath of the rampage, law enforcement officials have not made clear which agency was in charge of the troubled and fruitless manhunt.

Franklin responded about the city's role late Wednesday with a written statement that Franklin's staff took seven hours to draft.

"APD assumed the lead role in the investigation upon arrival at the Fulton County Courthouse at approximately 10:00 a.m.," the mayor's office said in a statement issued after 11 p.m.

The shooting began at about 9 a.m. Friday. The first carjacking attributed to Nichols outside the courthouse took place at 9:05 a.m., police said.

Franklin's statement went on to say that Atlanta police took the lead role after they were notified by phone "that the alleged perpetrator Brian Nichols had eluded sheriff's deputies after fatally wounding three victims and assaulting another."

Nichols then went on a carjacking spree, taking five vehicles during a flight from the courthouse to parking garages near Centennial Olympic Park. Nichols allegedly assaulted Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Don O'Briant at 9:20 a.m. while taking his green Honda.

Police warned the public throughout the day Friday to watch out for the Honda, broadcasting its description and tag number. But the car was found in the same garage later that night, and police later said Nichols had slipped out of the garage on foot and taken MARTA to Buckhead.

It's unclear when Nichols boarded the train, but a Journal-Constitution employee says she saw a man who looked like him walking down Marietta Street toward the Five Points MARTA station between 9:30 a.m. and 10 a.m.

Had Nichols been arrested that morning, U.S. Customs agent David Wilhelm might still be alive. Authorities said Nichols killed him in Buckhead Friday night. Nichols surrendered to Gwinnett County police Saturday morning.

Although police allowed Nichols to leave the downtown area, Atlanta officials have withheld criticism all week.

"I think APD did an incredible job, as did all law enforcement, and I'm greatly relieved by the outcome," Franklin said Monday.

Even so, she said it was too soon to begin assessing the police department's performance. "Until there is an evaluation and debriefing of the action, I think it's premature to assess what happened and what didn't happen," she said.

Asked how much time she would give Police Chief Richard Pennington to evaluate the police response, Franklin said, "as much time as he needs." She quickly added: "This is a 34-year veteran, an experienced chief."

The statement, issued by Franklin's deputy chief of staff, Sandra Walker, quotes the mayor as saying: "At this point, there is nothing more important than ensuring that we develop a solid, factually accurate case. It is imperative that we provide the district attorney the information needed to effectively and fairly prosecute the case. In terms of the actions of law enforcement agencies, Chief Pennington and his team will focus their attention on who did what, when they did it, how they did it, and why they did it at the appropriate time."
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[THE KOD]

"At this point, there is nothing more important than ensuring that we develop a solid, factually accurate case. It is imperative that we provide the district attorney the information needed to effectively and fairly prosecute the case. In terms of the actions of law enforcement agencies, Chief Pennington and his team will focus their attention on who did what, when they did it, how they did it, and why they did it at the appropriate time."
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in other words case closed. One extra person died needlessly.

 

[Chopsticks]

Who is to blame in Atlanta escape ?

RAP...

 

[yyz]

Whitey...............

 

[THE KOD]

Police: Nichols took 5 cars in 15 minutes

By RHONDA COOK
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/17/05
Brian G. Nichols allegedly carjacked five vehicles within 15 minutes as he tried to escape last week's carnage at the Fulton County Courthouse, police reports show.

The reports reveal how quickly Nichols ? after allegedly killing a judge, court reporter and sheriff's deputy ? hopped from SUV to tow truck, then to sedan, SUV and another automobile before fleeing downtown Atlanta on a MARTA train to Buckhead. There, he killed a federal agent, police say.

Nichols remained in the Fulton County Jail on Wednesday as prosecutors prepared to charge him in the slayings of Judge Rowland Barnes, court reporter Julie Ann Brandau, Sgt. Hoyt Teasley and Immigration and Customs agent David Wilhelm.

The longest Nichols was in any one vehicle was seven minutes, the time it took him to drive a commandeered tow truck less than a half-mile from Wall Street near Underground Atlanta to a parking deck on Cone Street, the reports show. The shortest time between carjackings was two minutes.

Atlanta Deputy Solicitor Duane Cooper was pulling into his regular parking deck on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive just a few yards from where Teasley lay dying on the sidewalk outside the courthouse, reports show.

Cooper declined to talk about the experience Wednesday, but the report said Nichols opened the driver's side door of Cooper's 2001 Mazda Tribute, brandished a handgun and demanded the SUV. Cooper told police Nichols backed out of the parking lot driveway and headed up the hill toward Peachtree Street.

It was 9:05 a.m.

Cooper's car was ditched at Wall Street, next to Underground Atlanta and just a few yards from Five Points.

Deronta Franklin was waiting at 15 Wall St. in his tow truck for his next call from dispatch.

"It happened so fast," Franklin, 37, said Wednesday. "He [Nichols] turned onto Wall [Street] and made a quick left into the parking deck" followed moments later by "about five police cars." By now the time was 9:07 a.m.

Suddenly, Nichols re-emerged "on foot," he said.

"He pointed the gun and said, 'Let me have it,' and I threw up my hands and said, 'You can have the truck,' " Franklin said.

Franklin's 1999 Ford F-350 tow truck was found in a parking deck at 98 Cone St., where Nichols allegedly took a 2004 Mercury Sable driven by Almeta Kilgo, a 37-year-old computer programmer who works for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

It was 9:14 a.m.

Kilgo said Nichols parked the tow truck in a space across the aisle from where she backed in her sedan. Nichols allegedly demanded that Kilgo "move over" into the passenger seat, which she did. Kilgo said Nichols drove a few levels down before ordering her into the trunk. Instead she ran, screaming for help.

Nichols' next stop was 250 Spring St., site of another parking deck. Sung Chung, 26, was getting out of his green Isuzu Trooper.

It was 9:16 a.m.

"He demanded that I get into [the] passenger seat, and I jumped over," said Chung, a small-business owner. "He asked for money, and I told him I didn't have any. . . . And when I noticed he no longer had the gun and was taking off his shirt, that's when I jumped out of the car."

Nichols then drove the Trooper out of the garage and to another one, Centennial Parking, at 130 Marietta St., according to the police reports. There, Journal-Constitution book reviewer Don O'Briant was parking his 1997 Honda. By this time it was 9:20 a.m.

O'Briant, 62, said Nichols parked Chung's Trooper in a nearby space marked for handicapped drivers. Nichols then ordered O'Briant into the trunk of his green Honda Accord; instead the AJC reporter turned to run and Nichols pistol-whipped him, O'Briant said.

Nichols got into the Honda and drove away, the police report said. The Honda, however, which was the target of an intense manhunt throughout the day, was found in the same garage 13 hours later.

Responding to a call from another AJC employee working the night shift, police found O'Briant's Honda one floor down from where it was taken.

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[THE KOD]

Cellmate saw rage mounting
Ex-prisoner says he told officials to watch Nichols

By CRAIG SCHNEIDER, SAEED AHMED
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/17/05
Rodney Johnson knows Brian G. Nichols better than most.

After all, the two men spent two months together in a cell at the Fulton County Jail. Nichols was there on charges he raped his ex-girlfriend, Johnson on an aggravated assault charge.

Rodney Johnson, in Nacogdoches, Texas, recalls Brian G. Nichols as a 'powerful young man,' adding, 'His body was perfect . . . he had the mind to go with it. He was a martial arts man.'

On the surface, Nichols appeared calm and quiet, Johnson said, but inside, his rage built.

"He was getting real frustrated," Johnson said. "He was going to [snap] sooner or later."

Nichols was furious he couldn't post bail, he felt betrayed by his former girlfriend, and he was convinced a preacher who had been counseling the couple caused their breakup, then started dating the woman, Johnson said.

"That got him real angry," said Johnson, 41, who was released from jail in November and now lives in Nacogdoches, Texas, with his wife and mother.

Over time, Johnson became so concerned about Nichols' mounting anger that he says he asked jail officials to watch Nichols more closely.

He says he twice filled out forms and submitted them to jail officials, but, he said, the jail officials did nothing.

Nikita Adams-Hightower, a spokeswoman for the Fulton County Sheriff's Department, which runs the jail, said Wednesday night that she could not confirm whether Johnson had submitted any paperwork in which he raised concerns about Nichols.

But the jail, she said, does have a formal system in place by which inmates can share their concerns by filling out a form. Jailers then look into the matter, she said.

Court transcripts reviewed by The Associated Press from Nichols' rape trial corroborate that Nichols was angry at the preacher.

During Nichols' February trial, the woman he is accused of raping told jurors that Nichols attacked a minister from the couple's church, according to the transcripts. She said she and the minister had started dating.

That relationship with the minister clearly upset Nichols, the transcripts show. In recounting a conversation he had with the minister, Nichols told jurors: "I told him that I felt as though he was a false prophet, a false teacher."

That trial ended in a mistrial because the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. Nichols, 33, was being retried on that charge when he overpowered a sheriff's deputy in a holding room area Friday morning and stole her gun.

He entered a courtroom and killed a judge and his court reporter, then killed another deputy during his escape, authorities say. During a 26-hour manhunt, he killed a federal customs agent he encountered at the Buckhead home the man was building and held a woman captive in her apartment before surrendering Saturday, police said.

Thought world over with

Records show Nichols was booked into the Fulton County Jail on Aug. 24, 2004, on rape and kidnapping charges. Johnson was booked into the jail on Sept. 18, 2004, on aggravated assault charges for attacking a man, and he was released on time served Nov. 20, 2004.

Records show Nichols and Johnson shared a cell.

During their time together ? Nichols had the top bunk, Johnson the bottom ? the two men became close friends, Johnson said.

Nichols was a "powerful young man," Johnson said. "His body was perfect. . . . he had the mind to go with it. He was a martial arts man."

Nichols rarely ? if ever ? expressed his anger to others, Johnson said.

If Nichols got angry at someone while playing basketball, he would smile at them, but then play so hard that he would knock them to the ground, Johnson said.

But several weeks into his stay, Johnson said he noticed that Nichols' anger was beginning to get the best of him.

As he sat in his jail cell waiting for his first trial to begin, Nichols' frustration and anger mounted.

The angrier Nichols got, the more he paced his cell or exercised. When he talked about his ex-girlfriend, Nichols told his cellmate, "I should have done something to her for real," Johnson said.

"He thought his world was over with," said Johnson, who says he confronted Nichols about his anger.

"I told him that somebody's going to get hurt," Johnson said.

Still, Johnson says he did not believe Nichols was the kind of a man who could go on a killing spree.

"I wouldn't think in a million years he would kill," he said.

"He made a bad mistake, a very bad mistake. It blew my mind."
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[AR182]

scott,

what do you think about the atlanta da.....paul howard.....understand he is in over his head.....

 

[THE KOD]

AR

He has been in over his head for many years.

He has a history of jumbled proceedings too many to count.

Politics in Atlanta is a disgrace.

 

[THE KOD]

Former hostage Smith gets $70,000 in reward money

By JIM THARPE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/24/05
Former hostage Ashley Smith got a hero's welcome today at the state Capitol. And she walked away $70,000 richer.

Smith, a Duluth resident who was held hostage two weeks ago by courthouse murder suspect Brian Nichols, was given rewards from the state and various law enforcement agencies for helping capture him. The city of Atlanta and Georgia Fraternal Order of Police also showed up with money for the single mother.

Smith, with her 5-year-old daughter in tow, thanked "my savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" in accepting the checks. "My heart goes out to those who are still mourning," she said.

Nichols surrendered March 12 after Smith talked to him about her life, her religious faith and read to him from an inspirational book. She prepared pancakes for him before he let her go. She phoned police after her release.

Gov. Sonny Perdue credited Smith with preventing a horrific tragedy from spiraling further out of control.

"We're here today to recognize the heroism of a young woman who faced a dangerous situation with calmness, courage, decency and faith," Perdue said. He credited Smith with ending "a tragic situation without further loss of life."

Perdue presented Smith with $10,000 from the state. She also received $20,000 from the FBI, $25,000 from the U.S. Marshals Service, $5,000 from the Georgia Sheriff's Association, $5,000 from the City of Atlanta and $5,000 from the Georgia Fraternal Order of Police. Previously, the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police had presented Smith a $2,500 reward.

Smith, a 26-year-old widow, has become a national celebrity since her ordeal. She has appeared on all major television networks, her picture is on the cover of People magazine and she has received numerous proposals of marriage and offers of money from total strangers.

Her picture has even appeared on the front page of a newspaper in Borneo. When she went as a guest to a metro area Rotary Club, she was given a standing ovation.

Nichols, 33, is suspected of overpowering a sheriff's deputy while changing clothes for a rape trial that was being heard by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes. Witnesses say he entered Barnes' courtroom, fatally shot the judge and court stenographer Julie Ann Brandau and moments later fatally shot sheriff's Sgt. Hoyt Teasley while fleeing the courthouse. Nichols, who was captured March 12, is also accused of killing federal agent David Wilhelm.

While on the run he encountered Smith, whose ordeal began around 2 a.m. March 12, when she took a break from unpacking boxes in her newly rented Duluth apartment and drove to a nearby convenience store for cigarettes.

When she returned, Nichols forced his way into her apartment at gunpoint and held her hostage for more than seven hours, authorities say.

Smith later said she talked to Nichols calmly about her daughter, who is living with relatives in Augusta, and her late husband, who was killed in a knife fight. She told Nichols that if she died, her child would be an orphan. She read to Nichols from an inspirational book, "The Purpose Driven Life," and talked to him about her faith in God.

That revelation in the media has sent sales of the book, which quotes 1,500 Bible verses, to the top of the best-seller list.

Around 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Smith told Nichols she needed to meet her daughter and he let her go. She called 911 and Nichols subsequently surrendered to a Gwinnett SWAT team.
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well they gave her the money. Guess they couldn't figure out a way not to give it to her. But I think they tried hard.

 

[THE KOD]

Looks like any blame for missing the car in the parking deck got
swept right under the rug as usual. That along with some other miscues cost the life of the Fed agent.

Man I would sue them if I were that family.

If this was one of us in charge . Heads would roll.

Atlanta .

 

[yyz]

Have they released any of the courthouse videos yet? They said the whole place is monitored by cameras, adn that there should be some footage of what took place.

 

[THE KOD]

Buckhead couple had chilling encounter with Nichols

By SAEED AHMED
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/31/05
Shelton Warren found it odd that his girlfriend of several years was knocking at their apartment door instead of just letting herself in.

He soon found out why.

Standing in the doorway, holding a gun to his girlfriend's side, was the man whose face had flashed on Warren's television screen moments earlier: Brian Nichols.

"He said, 'Don't try anything,' " Warren's girlfriend calmly said.

But Warren did.

The violent encounter that followed left Warren with a concussion and too shaken to talk about the incident until now.

Fighting back, Warren believes, may have saved him and his girlfriend from becoming two more victims of what police say was a murderous rampage that had claimed three lives before Nichols appeared at their doorway. Before the night was over, a fourth person would die.

Of all the people who were directly exposed to Nichols during the March 11 shooting spree ? the attorneys at the Fulton County Courthouse, the carjack victims and the woman credited with his eventual capture ? Warren and his girlfriend have been the most reluctant to talk about their brush with him.

Warren, 27, is still feeling the aftereffects of the concussion he received in his fight with the intruder: dizziness, occasional memory loss, disorientation.

Only last week did he return to his job as a customer service representative for a computer company.

His girlfriend, Iman Adan, 23, startles easily and is afraid to leave their apartment alone. She can't bring herself to talk about that night.

Neither would agree to be photographed for this story, saying they don't want to be in the public eye. Warren and his attorney appeared briefly on a CNN morning show March 19, but since then Warren has kept a low profile.

"We just want to be left alone," he said.

Warren agreed to speak to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to counter the Atlanta Police Department's contention that neither he nor Adan positively identified Nichols as their attacker when they were shown a photo of him that night.

"I told them a couple of times this was their man," Warren said. "I told them he's still out there. I guess it was kind of hard for them to believe it."

The police say they thoroughly searched in and around the sprawling apartment complex on Lenox Road in Buckhead and stand by their report that said the couple couldn't confirm that the attacker was Nichols.

Stranger at the door

The encounter occurred shortly after 10 p.m. ? more than 12 hours into the manhunt for Nichols, a defendant in a rape trial who authorities said overpowered a sheriff's deputy at the Fulton County Courthouse and went on a shooting spree, killing a judge, a court reporter and another deputy in a matter of minutes.

Warren was in his apartment at the Summit at Lenox, watching TV, transfixed along with the rest of metro Atlanta by developing news of the massive search for the gunman. The reports said police believed Nichols was on the run in a green Honda Accord.

"I was thinking, he's probably right in the [metro] area, he's sticking close to places he knows," Warren said. "But there was no way he was still in that Honda."

Then came the knock at the door.

"It's me," his girlfriend said.

Warren peered through the peephole and saw Adan standing there, next to someone else.

Still unsure of what was going on, Warren opened the door.

"Who are you?" Warren asked the stranger.

"He said, 'Don't try anything,' " Adan replied.

That's when Warren noticed a black handgun pressed against Adan's side.

"I looked back up at him and I realized who he was," he said.

Woman followed

Minutes earlier, Adan had left the fitness center inside the apartment complex. As she walked the three blocks home, she noticed she was being followed by a tall man in a gray jogging suit. It was a Friday night and there were plenty of people outside, so she didn't think much of it.

She punched in the door code to her building and entered. The man stuck his right foot in to catch the door from closing.

By the time Adan reached the stairs, he had caught up to her.

"Do you know who I am?" she recalled him asking. "I'm Brian Nichols, the one everyone's looking for."

Adan tried not to let her fear show. Trying to run seemed foolish.

He asked if she lived with anyone else. Yes, she said, with another roommate. A girlfriend.

Adan believed that if she told Nichols about her boyfriend waiting in the apartment, he would take her someplace else.

They climbed the three flights of stairs in silence.

Adan knocked.

A hallway fight

If Nichols was surprised to see a man answer the door, his eyes didn't show it, Warren said. He looked calm and expressionless.

"He wants to come in," Adan told her boyfriend.

Warren then did something he still can't explain.

 

[THE KOD]

As the two stepped through the doorway, Warren pushed his girlfriend into the apartment and shoved the man as hard as he could, sending him staggering from the door. The action propelled Warren into the hall.

"The only thing on my mind was, don't let this person in your house,' " he said. "I had no other thought, no other feeling."

The gunman steadied himself and rushed toward the door.

"Lock the door," Warren cried.

He heard the lock click at the same time he felt the butt of the handgun hit his forehead.

The two men struggled in the narrow hallway ? both former athletes, similarly built.

The confrontation lasted no more than a few seconds, Warren recalled.

His attacker struck him on the head again.

Don't let this person point his gun at me. Don't let him shoot me, Warren kept thinking.

He didn't. He glared, then turned and ran.

Warren reached for the door.

"Keep it locked," he cried to a hysterical Adan. His face bloody from the pistol-whipping, Warren chased after the gunman. But he was gone.

Warren borrowed a neighbor's cellphone and called police. I've just been attacked by the guy you're looking for, he said.

It was 10:18 p.m.

The first officers arrived four minutes later, followed soon after by hordes of law enforcement agents from the Atlanta Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the FBI, the U.S. marshals.

But when police showed Warren and Adan a picture of Nichols, both "believed it was the suspect but could not confirm it," Atlanta police Officer W.T. Crossen wrote in his report.

Warren disputes that. He said he told police the man was Nichols.

"I told them that me and this person just got into it," Warren said. He said he urged them to pursue the man, saying, "He's got to be still out here. Go through these buildings, search the area."

Another neighbor, Maria Bess, who saw a stranger holding a gun to Adan and also called 911, said she identified the man as Nichols as well.

"I didn't know who Nichols was at the time. I hadn't been watching TV," said Bess, 20. "But when they showed me his picture, I told them that was him."

Atlanta police spokesman Sgt. John Quigley said officers "thoroughly investigated" the area for more than three hours ? until 1:42 a.m. Authorities detained two people, including one in a green Honda, and took them to the couple for identification, Quigley said.

"We couldn't find Nichols in the area, and therefore we didn't know, based on what they said, whether there had been a definite sighting," the police spokesman said.

Quigley could not clear up the discrepancy between the witness accounts and Crossen's report. "The investigation is ongoing, but the report stands as it is, at this point," he said.

The next morning, the body of federal customs agent David Wilhelm, 40, was found in a house he was building on Canter Road ? just a block away from the apartment where Warren and Adan live. Police believe Nichols shot him to death.

"The next day, with the serious nature of the call very close by, it made it seem more obvious that maybe the two incidents were connected," Quigley said.

Police say Nichols took Wilhelm's truck and drove it to Gwinnett County to the apartment of Ashley Smith, accosting her about 2 a.m. Saturday the same way Adan was approached.

Nichols surprised Smith outside her apartment and, holding her at gunpoint, forced his way in and held her captive until about 9:30 a.m., when he allowed her to leave, authorities say.

Then, just before noon, as heavily armed officers surrounded the Duluth apartment complex in response to Smith's 911 call, Nichols waved a white T-shirt and peacefully surrendered.

'I'm thankful I lived'

Warren has returned to work but is still feeling weak and is nursing a sprained right hand.

Because he doesn't have medical insurance, he is hoping for help from the county or the state's victim assistance program, said his lawyer, Nikki Bonner.

"I'm not stressing over any of that, though," Warren said. "I'm just grateful to be alive, you know. I'm thankful I lived to see another day."
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this guys gf should give him the royal treatment for the next year.
he had a set of nads to push him outside and probably saved another life by doing it.