ATLANTA -- The man accused of gunning down at least four people last week during a shooting rampage at the Fulton County Courthouse appeared Tuesday morning in court for a status hearing.

No new charges were filed against Brian Nichols during the brief 10 a.m. hearing, which was held to advise the suspect about the accusations stemming from a rape trial.

More Resources VIDEO: Carrie Edwards reports SLIDE SHOW: The Victims SLIDE SHOW: Courthouse Shooting Woman Held Hostage Recounts Ordeal Officials Ponder Charges for Nichols Info about Memorials for Victims

The judge informed Nichols that he was being held on the same rape charge that he was on trial for Friday when he allegedly assaulted a deputy, stole her gun and shot to death the judge presiding over his case, a court reporter and another deputy.

The rape charge is being used to hold Nichols as he's investigated in Friday's courthouse shooting rampage and the death of a federal agent later that night. Assistant District Attorney Michele McCutcheon informed Cobb County Judge Frank Cox that the the state will pursue four charges of murder against Nichols.

Nichols was held without bond, and no future court hearings were set.

Appearing in a blue jumpsuit and under heavy guard, Nichols, 33, was shackled as he sat at the table before the judge, who advised him of his rights and asked about legal representation.

Nineteen officers, almost fivefold the norm, packed the small cinderblock room to ensure there would be no mishaps with the proceedings this time. Many of the officers were armed with stun guns and pepper spray.

During the five-minute hearing, Nichols looked straight ahead and did not make eye contact with anyone in the room, including the judge when he spoke to him. Besides the officers, attorneys and judge, the only other people in the room were about 20 reporters, photographers and a cameraman.

All those booked into the Fulton County Jail make their first appearance before a judge at the jail. Typically there are only three or four officers on hand for the hearings.

On Tuesday, in addition to 19 officers lining the walls in the 50-by-30-foot hearing room, several more officers blocked the hall outside. While everyone entering the jail must pass through a metal detector, everyone entering the hearing room also was searched by a handheld metal detector.

All of the Fulton County judges have recused themselves from the case so Cobb County Chief Magistrate Judge Frank Cox presided over the hearing.

At Tuesday's hearing, the judge denied a request by Nichols' attorney that the Georgia Supreme Court appoint the judge in the case since all of the judges.

When asked by the judge if he had any questions, Nichols said only, "Not at this time."

During the proceeding, Nichols sat between his two attorneys, Chris Adams and Gary Parker, in a small courtroom inside the Fulton County jail.

Adams told reporters after the hearing "this is a time of grief and mourning" for the courthouse community.

Fulton prosecutors are expected to officially charge him on other counts relating to Friday's shooting at a later date.

Fulton Mourns Slain Workers

Hours after Nichols appeared before the magistrate judge, dozens of mourners gathered in the Fulton government building to mourn those who were slain in the bloody rampage.

The grief was apparent during a 90-minute afternoon memorial service in a building across the street from the courthouse where the shootings occured. About 200 people packed in and around the building's atrium, and another 100 or so watched the ceremony from the three levels of balconies overlooking it.

Many wept as friends and co-workers shared thoughts and anecdotes about the victims of last week's slayings. Others held their hands aloft in praise during the service's prayers.

County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford thanked the courthouse employees -- clerks and court reporters, other employees -- who have not chosen public life, unlike judges and law enforcement, but are sometimes thrust into it.

"We put ourselves in the line of fire, so to speak. You do not," said Bedford, who employed court reporter and shooting victim, Julie Ann Brandau, when he was in private practice. "It's not fair that any of you should suffer."

About two dozen officers from the Atlanta Police Department, and Fulton and DeKalb counties, were among the crowd. The Fulton officers wore horizontal black bands across their badges in honor of their fallen comrade, Sgt. Hoyt Teasley, who was gunned down outside the courthouse after reportedly pursuing Nichols.

Fulton County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Michael Cooke hailed Teasley as a hero.

"When everyone was running away from the danger, Hoyt, responding to the distress, ran to the danger," Cooke said.

Answers Sought in How Suspect Managed to Elude Police Net

Nichols' appearance in court and the public memorial occurred as law enforcement authorities continued to sort out how Nichols escaped and what took them so long to take the suspect in custody.

As the focus of a 26-hour manhunt following the courthouse killings of a judge, deputy and court reporter, Nichols escaped unnoticed in a commuter train to a pricey neighborhood before allegedly gunning down a federal agent there a half-day later, prompting questions as to how he was able to easily get away.

Nichols, arrested the day after he asked directions during his getaway to the same Lenox Square neighborhood in north Atlanta, vanished on foot as investigators focused on finding the car they believed he was in. As it turns out, that car was found 13 hours later in the same downtown parking garage where it was carjacked only minutes after the courthouse shootings.

After that discovery, authorities admitted they had few other leads as to where Nichols was hiding. The trail abruptly came up cold in what law officers described as the largest such manhunt in Georgia history.

Nichols was only apprehended after he released a woman who he had held hostage for seven hours in her apartment. She immediately called 911 and pointed police to Nichols, who surrendered peacefully to a SWAT team.

The officers' failure to properly search the parking garage where his supposed getaway sat unnoticed for so long, and the decision not to search the commuter trains leaving the city's downtown, where the courthouse shootings occurred, has some Atlanta citizens wondering what authorities were thinking.

"I don't understand why they didn't have the MARTA staked out. I really wish they had," said Maryanne Fry, a neighbor of slain immigration agent David Wilhelm, referring to the city's commuter train system.

Nichols, 33, is accused of overpowering a deputy in the Fulton County Courthouse, taking her gun and fatally shooting the judge presiding over his rape trial and the judge's court reporter. Police said he then killed a deputy who tried to stop him outside the courthouse, and that night allegedly gunned down federal agent David Wilhelm as Nichols continued to elude arrest.

Wilhelm, 40, was working on tile in his new five-bedroom house in the Lenox Square area late Friday when he allegedly was shot in the home by Nichols. His body was found early Saturday. His blue pickup truck, pistol and badge were taken.

Before dropping a token in the box Monday at the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority's Lenox Transit Station, only a half mile from Wilhelm's house, commuter Carla Hill said that if "MARTA police could have been alert and in sufficient numbers, someone might have spotted him. Someone that dangerous, I would think all precautions would be taken."

Hill questioned whether MARTA's numerous video surveillance cameras "were in working order."

"There should be some image of him because the cameras are everywhere," she said.

MARTA spokeswoman Jocelyn Baker said that while Atlanta police have said Nichols used a commuter train to get away, investigators reviewing the surveillance videos "have not found anything at this time."

"It is a process that does take some time," Baker said. She said MARTA police were "actively involved from the outset" in the search. She said initial police reports said he was in a stolen car and there was "no indication he was on foot."

Police Chief Richard Pennington said officers had no reason to believe Nichols was using the commuter train system, so the trains were never ordered to stop running.

The first indication that Nichols had taken the train came 13 hours later when officers received a report of a couple assaulted near the Lenox Square train station by a man matching Nichols' description. The man had brandished a gun and demanded money or a vehicle before striking one of them in the head with the weapon and fleeing.

A police report shows Shelton Warren told investigators he was attacked in his apartment, about a half block from Wilhelm's house, when he opened the door to let his girlfriend inside and discovered a man holding a gun on her. Both Warren and Iman Adan told investigators they "believed it was" Nichols.

Between the train station and Wilhelm's house, Nichols passed several gated condominium and apartment complexes.

Irene Yabrow said she was walking her dog just after 10 p.m. Friday inside the fence at the St. James at Bankhead condominiums near Wilhelm's house.

"Nobody knows what happened there," she said. "I heard a noise. A big truck passed by so fast."

Kent Arrowsmith, a part-time resident of the St. James condos, said he and a friend discovered an "unspent bullet" on the sidewalk Saturday morning just after they saw yellow police tape stretched around the wooded yard.

"A big police sergeant came up there and he said, 'Get out of here,"' Arrowsmith said. "They apparently didn't mark the spot."