The news today has been filled with the account of how Brian Nichols, a man on trial for allegedly holding and raping his ex-girlfriend for three days, went berzerk and killed the judge, court reporter, a deputy, and seriously wounded another deputy. As I write this, he is still at large. Hopefully he will be captured soon, but I'm not hopeful as long as he is in the Atlanta area, as law enforcement has not been very effective so far. Read on...
First, this man was accused of a violent crime and had recently been found with contraband weapons in his shoes. The murdered judge had just expressed concern that they may need to increase security over his trial. So why was there just a single deputy, a female deputy, escorting him on the supposedly long route from the holding cell to the courtroom? There are some women that might make effective guards, but in general women are not as physically strong nor as large as men. Nichols is 6' 1" and weighs 200 lbs. So why was there only one woman escorting him?
After escaping the courthouse, Nichols supposedly attempted to carjack several cars, managed to carjack a tow truck or something, then went into a parking garage and stole a car from a reporter who was coming to work. He tried to make the reporter get into the trunk of his car, but the reporter refused and was hit with Nichols's gun. It's likely the reason he attempted to kidnap the reporter was to keep anyone from knowing what car he was driving.
Over twelve hours after this happened authorities found the reporter's stolen car in the same parking garage. So this guy has had at least a twelve hour head-start while everyone was looking for him in the reporter's car. Why did it take police twelve hours to find the car in the same garage it was stolen in?
Certainly Brian Nichols is ultimately responsible for killing three innocent people, but whoever is responsible for the courthouse security could have done a lot more to keep it from happening in the first place. And if police had bothered to perform a thorough search of the parking garage, it's likely everyone wouldn't have wasted time looking for a green Honda.
I hope they catch this guy soon, but I have a feeling he isn't done killing yet. I also figure they won't take him alive.
UPDATE:Well, they caught him. Unfortunately, he killed again to steal a customs agent's truck. He was taken alive, which may also be unfortunate. He's still as good as dead, but now we'll have to spend a pile of tax money for a trial and the endless appeals that come with a capital murder conviction. Perhaps he'll do us all a favor and just hang himself in his cell.