GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- A judge was shot to death in her chambers Wednesday by her estranged husband, a 21-year police veteran who exchanged gunfire with other officers before surrendering, police said.
District Judge Carol Irons, 40, had sounded an alarm saying that Clarence Ratliff, 51, was holding a gun to her head in her office in the Gerald R. Ford Hall of Justice. Three officers rushed to her aid as she stumbled out the door, clutching her bleeding throat and crying, 'Please help me.!'
Officer James Wells guided Irons into a vacant jury room as Ratliff followed her into the hall, still firing, Police Chief William Hegarty said.
Hegarty said there was a brief exhange of shots in which one officer suffered a minor wound. Ratliff ran back into the chambers, barricaded himself briefly and then surrendered without further gunfire.
'This is a very personalized matter between two people who were estranged ... one a judge, the other a police officer,' the chief said. 'There was no indicator prior to this of this kind of problem.'
Hegarty said Ratliff, who is assigned to night road patrol duty, went to Irons' chambers during her lunch hour dressed in civilian clothes. He said he did not know if Ratliff used his service revolver in the killing.
Hagerty said he thought the couple had been married three or four years, and had no children. He said indications are Irons died during resuscitation efforts in the jury room, but an autopsy will be conducted.
There are no metal detectors in the building but Hagerty said he doubted if they could have prevented the shooting.
Ratliff is to be arraigned Thursday on an open murder charge.
A graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit, Irons was elected in 1982 and was running unopposed on the Nov. 8 election ballot. She is a former assistant Kent County prosecutor.
