A sheriff is accused of entering a courthouse and demanding to speak with a judge alone, then closing the door of an inner office and shooting him dead.
Letcher County Sheriff Shawn Mickey Stines, 43, allegedly walked into District Judge Kevin Mullins’ outer office and told court staff that he had to talk to him alone, The Mountain Eagle reported.
The sheriff and the judge went into an inner office and shut the door, and gunshots were heard shortly after around 3pm on Thursday, according to the newspaper. Stines then exited with his hands in the air and surrendered to cops.
Stines was handcuffed in the foyer of the Letcher County Courthouse.
The Kentucky State Police who responded to a 911 call reporting shots fired at the courthouse found Mullins, 54, with multiple gunshot wounds, WKYT reported.
Emergency responders performed life-saving measures but Mullins was pronounced dead by a county coroner’s office member at the scene.
Police determined that an argument had ensued inside the courthouse between Stines and Mullins.
‘Sadly, I have been informed that a district judge in Letcher County was shot and killed in his chambers this afternoon,’ wrote Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday evening.
‘There is far too much violence in this world, and I pray there is a path to a better tomorrow.’
Cops cordoned off Main Street in Whitesburg amid the ongoing investigation.
The motive of the shooting was not immediately known.
Stines has been charged with first-degree murder.
(Picture: Google Maps)
He was elected as sheriff in 2018 and reelected in 2022.
Mullins was appointed by Beshear in 2009. He previously worked as an assistant commonwealth attorney. He is being remembered for his work as a judge helping individuals with drug addictions through his program allowing inmates with substance abuse disorders to enroll in inpatient treatment as part of their pretrial release.
Letcher County Judge-Executive Terry Adams signed an executive order to close the courthouse on Friday in light of the crime.
It happened six years after a shootout at Fayette County Magistrate Court in Masontown, Pennsylvania, left one person dead and four others injured.
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