DULUTH -- The man accused of gunning down a Fulton County judge, a court reporter and a sheriff's deputy was arrested without incident Saturday morning at a Gwinnett County apartment complex.
Police said Brian Nichols, 33, was taken into custody about 11:30 a.m. at the Bridgewater Apartments by a cadre of law enforcement authorities amid reports of a hostage situation that was said to have occurred at the apartments.
No injuries were reported during the incident, and authorities said Nichols surrendered to police. Under heavy guard, he was immediately taken to an FBI office in DeKalb County. After about an hour, the man was taken to City Hall East.
"Brian Nichols is in custody. He turned himself in without incident. Everybody is safe," said Officer Darren Molony of the Gwinnett County Police Department.
Moloney said Nichols was armed and had a female hostage when he was caught. The woman was not identified by authorities, and it was unclear what relationship she had with Nichols.
Gwinnett Police Chief Charles Walters said during a news conference that the woman did not know Nichols and that he apparently sought refuge in the apartment.
He said several weapons were found in the unit after the woman managed to escape and call 911.
"She was able to get out," he said.
Also, Nichols is a suspect in connection with the fatal shooting of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent found dead early Saturday, FBI Spokesman Steve Lazarus said. That agent was later identified as Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge David Wilhelm.
Police went to the Gwinnett complex because Wilhelm's blue pickup truck was parked in the lot, authorities and sources said.
The federal agent was discovered shot to death in north Atlanta on Saturday, and his blue pickup truck, pistol and badge were missing.
Officials were trying to determine if the slaying was related to the courthouse rampage Friday. His body was found in the area where suspect Nichols used to live. The tag on the truck was ATG 6121.
When Nichols was taken into custody at the complex, dozens of residents who gathered at the area cheered and applauded.
Gov. Sonny Perdue issued a written statement praising investigators' effort to arrest Nichols.
"I am proud of the combined law enforcement effort that led to today's capture of Brian Nichols. I want to thank the dedicated professionals who risked their lives to bring this horrible tragedy to a close," the governor said. "The state of Georgia owes a debt of gratitude to the men and women who worked around the clock since Friday morning's tragic events. We must never forget that this has been a personal tragedy for many Georgia families, and our thoughts and prayers remain with them"
Hundreds of law officials had searched through the night in several states for Nichols, suspected of killing a judge and two other people at a downtown courthouse, then stealing a reporter's car to escape.
Although there had been reports that Nichols had allegedly stolen a green Honda Accord from a parking garage, the vehicle was found Friday night in the same garage. Someone working in the area saw the car and called police.
A combined reward of $60,000 had been offered for information leading to the capture of Nichols.
Customs Agent Found Dead
The body of the unidentified agent was found in the Lenox area of Buckhead where suspect Nichols used to live.
"We don't know if this is the same suspect," Fulton County Police deputy Chief G.D. Stiles said. "Whoever is driving this pickup truck is a cop killer."
Car Found at Garage
"He went from one level of the parking lot to another, apparently," Atlanta police spokesman John Quigley said early Saturday. "We don't know if any other cars are missing. I don't know if the person took public transportation or took another vehicle. There's lots of options."
Quigley said authorities were reviewing surveillance tapes "to see what leads we can develop from that." One of those tapes came from CNN security cameras in the parking garage where the carjacking took place.
The photos show a black man resembling Nichols donning a jacket that CNN said belonged to
Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Don O'Briant.
O'Briant wrote in Saturday's AJC that he had just parked his car when a young man pulled beside him and asked for directions to a nearby mall. Before O'Briant could oblige, the man pulled a gun and said, "Give me your keys or I'll kill you," then told him to get in the trunk.
O'Briant refused and started to run.
"I figured it was better to be shot at while I was running than to just stand there and be executed," O'Briant wrote.
The man pistol whipped him as he tried to escape. O'Briant fell, but got up and ran again.
"I scrambled into the street, waiting for the shots to come, but they didn't come," he wrote. "I guess it just wasn't my day to die."
Nichols beat O'Briant and demanded his car after fleeing the courthouse, where he fatally shot a judge, a court reporter and deputy sheriff with a gun he stole from another deputy sheriff. The deputy sheriff who had her gun stolen was escorting Nichols to his rape trial.
Throughout Friday, police said they were looking for the reporter's car, and highway message boards across the state issued descriptions of the vehicle. The report about the car being found came more than 13 hours after the slayings.
Authorities continued to ask for the public's help in finding Nichols early Saturday, and Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vernon Keenan said, "We do not know what type of vehicle he is in."
Nichols is armed and dangerous, said Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington.
The former computer technician was being escorted to his trial, in its fourth day, when the incident began Friday morning. Nichols was facing a retrial on charges of rape, sodomy, burglary, and false imprisonment, among others, after his earlier trial was declared a mistrial on Monday when jurors voted 8-4 for acquittal.
In the rape case, Nichols was accused of bursting into his ex-girlfriend's home, binding her with duct tape and sexually assaulting her over three days. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said Nichols brought a loaded machine gun into the home and a cooler with food in case he was hungry.
Nichols had been dating the woman for eight years, and she tried to break up with him after he got another woman pregnant, said Nichols' attorney, Barry Hazen. Though he is accused of imprisoning the woman and raping her, Hazen said his client claims she invited him over and they had consensual sex.
"My guts tell me he faced a greater chance of conviction in the second trial," Hazen said.
Nichols, who had been jailed since Aug. 23, faced a possible life sentence if convicted of rape, and prosecutor Gayle Abramson said she believes Nichols was certain he would be convicted and was willing to kill to avoid it.
The day before the incident, the judge and prosecutors in Nichols' case requested extra security after investigators found a shank -- or homemade knife -- in each of Nichols' shoes, Abramson said.
District Attorney Howard did not say what measures were taken to beef up security, but Assistant Police Chief Alan Dreher said no other officers assisted Hall with taking Nichols to court.
Hazen described his client as a "big, strong guy" with a laid-back personality.
"Even the larger deputies I don't think would be any match for Brian Nichols," Hazen said.
Police information suggests Nichols could have left the courthouse Friday morning after wounding deputy Cynthia Hall, who escorted him to court. Instead, he went into the courtroom and held about a dozen people hostage before killing court reporter Julie Brandau and Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, police said. Barnes had been a Fulton County judge since July 1998.
As Nichols left the courthouse, he was confronted by another Fulton County deputy, Sgt. Hoyt Teasely, who Nichols shot and killed, police said.
Chief Pennington said Friday night that Nichols attempted three or four carjackings after the shooting, one in which he took the reporter's Honda Accord. Early indications are that Nichols parked the car on another level of the same garage and escaped on foot.
Nichols' last known job was working as a computer technician for a logistics subsidiary of Atlanta-based shipping giant UPS Inc. Company spokesman Norm Black says Nichols joined the unit in March 2004 and left in September 2004, which was when he was arrested.
More than 100 state troopers and officers from several agencies, including the FBI, were assisting in the search, but there were few leads, police said.
A reward of $60,000 was being offered for information leading to Nichols' capture.
wsbtv.com Staff Writer Alfred Charles and Channel 2 Action News reporters JaQuitta Williams, Dale Cardwell and Mark Winne contributed to this report. Copyright 2006 by WSBTV.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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