Posted on 03/12/2005 2:39:43 PM PST by Pharmboy
ATLANTA (AP) - Two pictures have emerged of the man police say went on a bloody rampage through Atlanta - allegedly killing a judge and as many as three others before his arrest Saturday in an upscale town house. Family members describe Brian Nichols as a "good person" who came from a stable home and avoided the temptations of the street. Former classmates and coaches, on the other hand, recall him as a physically intimidating martial arts expert with a knack for trouble.
Police say Nichols, a former computer technician who was on trial for rape, overpowered a female sheriff's deputy Friday and shot and killed Judge Rowland Barnes, who was presiding over his case. He also is accused of killing the judge's court reporter and a deputy who tried to stop him as he fled the downtown courthouse.
Nichols is also a suspect in the shooting death of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent David Wilhelm, whose body was found Saturday in north Atlanta.
"We're trying to understand this whole thing," Nichols' sister-in-law Felisza Nichols said from her home in the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., suburb of Plantation. "Why did this happen? His character is completely opposite to what is going on."
Nichols' mother, Clathera, is a retired IRS worker, and his father, Gene, was an entrepreneur, their daughter-in-law said. They raised their sons in Maryland, sending them to private schools and to college.
Nichols' parents were living in Africa, where his mother worked for a local revenue department, Felisza Nichols said. They had planned to return home next week.
Nichols was briefly a student at Kutztown University in eastern Pennsylvania. He enrolled in the fall of 1989, made it through his freshman year, then left the university in the fall semester of his sophomore year.
Nick Pergine, who played football with Nichols at Kutztown, said Nichols' massive physical presence and martial arts skills earned him a reputation as someone to be careful around.
"He was a bad dude," Pergine said. "You didn't mess with him."
Jake Williams, who coached Nichols at Kutztown, compared Nichols' physique with that of NFL star John Mobley, who also played at the university.
"He was a physical specimen like you wouldn't believe," Williams said.
Nichols was arrested at least three times during his short stay at the university.
In 1990, he was charged with terroristic threats, simple assault, disorderly conduct and harassment, stemming from an incident in a university dining hall, according to court documents. He pleaded guilty to the two lesser charges and the others were dropped.
The next year, Nichols was arrested twice in a month for criminal trespassing, misdemeanor criminal mischief and disorderly conduct. The charges were later dropped.
After dropping out of school, Nichols moved to Georgia in 1995. He lived in an apartment complex in Atlanta, where a neighbor described him as a "nuisance" because he would occasionally let his pit bull roam around the complex.
Nichols' last known job was working as a computer technician for a subsidiary of Atlanta-based shipping giant UPS. Company spokesman Norm Black says Nichols joined the unit in March 2004 and left in September 2004, which was when he was arrested in the rape case.
Felisza Nichols says the portrait of her 33-year-old brother-in-law as a bloodthirsty killer doesn't make sense.
"He's a good person," she said. "He didn't come from a broken home. He's not a person who hung out in the streets and was always in jail. He came up living a good life."
This is the liberal pap played back. Some people are baaaaad no matter WHAT their environment was or is. Think Ted Bundy.
Stupidest...headline...ever
He had two sides, one stable and one violent?
After what he did, there'll be a third side to him.
The room temperature side!
If Georgia has an expedited process for the death penalty, this guy will be #1 on that list.
Family, Former Classmates Say Suspect in Courthouse Killing Spree Had Two Sides, One Stable, Another Violent
Well, I thought, you could say that about ANY violent criminal who wasn't in prison since he was 14. I agree--very dopey.
Who cares if it makes sense? The boy is busted big time and needs to ride the ligntning or get the needle by about this coming Thursday.
Yeah--I mean, every lunatic has SOME downtime, unless he was a loon from the moment he came out of the womb and never slept.
The point being.. he wasn't raised as some Gangbanger street hood. He didn't grow up in a bad environment.. So why did he do this?
Ummm... because he is EVIL?
Tough concept for the lefties to comprehend. About the only person they've ever accused of being evil is George W. Bush.
What a pity. He grew up with every advantage most Black kids can't even dream of: private schools, a college education, a stable home, most recently living in a gated community. But still, the bad in the boy won in the battle between good and evil.
"We're trying to understand what happened?"
Understand what?!? His "feelings"?!? Who cares about his feelings. It's what he 'did' that speaks volumes. The guy is an animal and he needs to be shut away for life or given death IMMEDIATELY. If it weren't for thug-sympathizing socialists putting this animal back out onto the streets, none of this would've happened.
As the commies always said: "If we could just make the environment perfect we would produce a race of supermen." Idiots.
Some time we have to draw the line and send the message that shit like this will not be accepted. If not now, when?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1361602/posts
This may wind up happening in this case. We will start hearing the same tired old excuses soon enough. It is all the fault of the American way of life and prejudice. He was poor... blah blah.
He'll be a hero in jail because he killed cops and a judge.
AND this guy had a LONG history of violence and law breaking. NO ONE who knew him even casually should be surprised. They are lying...they know what a POS he was and is.
We always hear this after someone has committed heinous crimes. There rarely are people who cannot be nice on occasion. He could have been reading to the blind all last week up to Thursday, but that doesn't change what he did from Friday on. (Or his other crimes he was up for.)
The story here isn't the demeanor, or lack of demeanor , or even the criminality of Brian Nichols, it is the criminality of the Atlanta authorities.
Criminal negligence. I agree.
Possibly a steroid user. A side effect of steroid use is agressive behavior.
Yep. I was wondering when we would get the inevitable "he was always such a good boy" interviews.
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