Two bailiffs were killed and a deputy sheriff wounded in a shooting Monday afternoon at a courthouse in Berrien County, Mich., when an inmate being transferred from a cell grabbed a gun and opened fire, authorities said.
The gunman was shot and killed by other bailiffs, but only after he had shot four people, two of them fatally, Sheriff L. Paul Bailey said at a news conference Monday. In addition to the bailiffs and the deputy, the inmate also shot a civilian in the arm.
“I lost some friends today,” Bailey, who was visibly shaken, said during the briefing. “So I’m here with a heavy heart.”
While Bailey said investigators were still piecing together all the details about what happened, he said that the incident occurred after “a fight occurred with that inmate on the way to the courtroom.”
After this fight, the inmate was able to disarm one of the officers and use that gun to begin shooting in the courthouse’s corridor, Bailey said. The inmate, who was not identified, was in custody for “several charges,” Bailey said.
Ultimately, the attacker “was taken down by two other bailiffs” who shot and killed him, Bailey said.
“Our hearts are torn apart,” Bailey said. “They were our friends. They were my colleagues. I’ve known them for over 30 years. So itap a sad day.”
The people injured and killed by the attacker were not immediately identified, Bailey said, as authorities sought to make sure their families were informed about what happened.
Bailey had said during an earlier briefing that there was “a disturbance” on the courthouse’s third floor shortly before 2:30 p.m. There were 10 court officers working Monday, Bailey said.
Chuck Heit, the Berrien County undersheriff, said in a telephone interview that both bailiffs were armed. Heit said they were both “deputized by the sheriff,” which makes them the latest law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty — their deaths coming just days after a gunman killed five police officers in Dallas last week.
That brings the number of law enforcement officers fatally shot by suspects while in the line of duty to 27, up from 16 a year ago — and slightly ahead of the average number at this point in the year (25) shown in FBI data over the last decade.
The wounded deputy was taken to nearby Lakeland Regional Hospital and treated in the emergency room, Bailey said. This deputy was in stable condition, Bailey said.
Bailey had said earlier that “several” civilians were hurt in the incident, including the one who was shot. Later on Monday, Bailey only mentioned one civilian being taken to the hospital.
“They went for shelter once the shooting occurred and other brave officers were able to come to their rescue and take the shooter down,” Bailey said.
The Michigan State Police said they responded to the shooting Monday, and Gov. Rick Snyder (R) posted on Twitter at 3:30 p.m. that the state police “secured the scene at the Berrien County courthouse and started its investigation into the shooting that occurred this afternoon.”
“This is a particularly tough time for law enforcement so I ask everyone reach out and . . . [show ] support for law enforcement across the state and across the country,” Snyder said at the news conference Monday evening.
Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said after the shooting that “we must do better to prevent these types of tragedies.”
“What occurred today in my hometown breaks my heart,” he said in a statement. “My thoughts are with our entire community – our friends and neighbors. This tragic event reminds us all too well that our law enforcement officers have their lives on the line every day not knowing what that day will bring. We have lost two very able public servants and we all grieve for them and their families.”
Please join me in praying for those affected. We will share more information here from MSP as it becomes available.
— Rick Snyder (@onetoughnerd)
Video footage posted online that appeared to be from outside the courthouse in southwestern Michigan showed numerous police vehicles, their lights flashing, parked outside the building shortly after the shooting.
Chris Gautz, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections, which operates a probation office in the courthouse, said one of their employees was in a third-floor courtroom at the time of the shooting and saw the gunman.
“We had a probation officer in the courtroom when it happened, and the gunman ran right past [her] and the rest of the folks,” Gautz said in a telephone interview. He said the courtroom remained on lockdown.
Gautz said that the probation office’s staff were all secure and none were injured in the shooting.
The courthouse is about 50 miles west of Kalamazoo, where an Uber driver killed six people in a shooting spree earlier this year.
