Other officers then shot and killed Gordon.
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The two victims have been identified as 61 year-old Joseph Zangaro and 63 year-old Ronald Kienzle. “They were our friends”.
Zangaro was head of courthouse security and was employed with the court since May 2004, police say. He retired from the Michigan State Police as commander of the Bridgman Post in Berrien County.
Retired Benton Township Police Officer Kim Fowler knew both of the slain bailiffs well.
The wounded deputy was taken to a hospital and treated in the emergency room, Bailey said. He is in stable condition. A jail inmate trying to escape from the western MI courthouse wrested a gun f. Sheriff’s Deputy Guy Puffer stands watch outside the Berrien County Courthouse after a shooting incident in St. Joseph, Mich., Monday, July 11, 2016.
The sheriff says authorities had “no warning signs” that the suspect would be violent.
Bailey says a deputy who was injured in the shooting is “doing fine” in intensive care after surgery.
The people injured and killed as well as the attacker were not immediately identified, Bailey said, as authorities sought to make sure their families were informed about what happened. She said she was keeping his last name because its his daughter’s last name and they, as a family, had always been a team.
“After further investigation from the crime scene techs, the suspect in this incident was handcuffed in the front”, Bailey said. He was killed by other officers.
There’s someone shooting at the third floor of the Berrien County Courthouse in St. Joseph, where I courier.
The injuries suffered by the deputy and the civilian were not considered life-threatening.
“That inmate was able to disarm one of the officers”, he said.
A press conference wrapped up a short time ago where the victims’ names were released.
“Our hearts are torn apart”, Sheriff Bailey said. Gov. Rick Snyder calls it a “terrible day in a wonderful community”.
St. Joseph is a small lakefront city roughly 100 miles east of Chicago.
A jail inmate who fatally shot two bailiffs, injuring two more people at a courthouse before he was killed in an escape attempt Monday, faced sex assault charges carrying up to life in prison, according to state records.
The inmate made it into a public hallway, where he shot a civilian in the arm, Bailey said.
Bailey had said earlier that “several” civilians were hurt in the incident, including the one who was shot.
A sheriff says two bailiffs and a gunman are dead at a western MI courthouse where a shooting happened.
The courthouse will be closed the rest of Monday and on Tuesday.
He had been taken from a holding cell and was being moved to a third-floor courtroom for an arraignment hearing when he began struggling with Atterbury, Bailey said.
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Fatal shootings have happened before in courthouses.
