FORT WORTH, Texas -- A gunman opened fire Wednesday in a crowded Tarrant County courtroom, killing a prosecutor and an attorney and seriously wounding two judges. The suspect fled, setting off a massive manhunt, but a man later turned himself in at a television station and confessed to the shooting spree.
About six hours after the shootings, a man claiming to be the gunman walked into WFAA-TV in Dallas, the station said. The man told news anchor Tracy Rowelett he committed the crime because of a divorce judgment that had gone against him, WFAA reported.
The man showed Rowlettt a 9mm handgun, believed to have been the weapon used in the courtroom shootings, and also produced a clip of ammunition and a small penknife. The suspect was later turned over to Dallas police, who were waiting for Fort Worth authorities to take custody of him.
It was not known whether Fort Worth authorities had positively identified the man as the suspect in the shootings.
The incident began about 9:45 a.m. when a gunman opened fire in a crowded courtroom in the Tarrant County Courthouse, killing an assistant district attorney and another lawyer and seriously wounding two judges. The man then escaped, prompting an intense search.
Another attorney was grazed by one of the several bullets sprayed from a 9mm handgun but was not hospitalized.
Authorities said the shooting appeared to have been well-planned. The suspect, who had been sitting in the gallery section, stood up during the proceedings and began firing toward the judges' bench.
Assistant Tarrant County District Attorney Chris Marshall, 42, and an attorney from Dallas, John Edwards, 33, were killed.
Both were inside the courtroom when the shooting began. Marshall was shot and killed inside the courtroom. Edwards ran from the courtroom but was chased by the suspect and was gunned down on a stairway between the third and fourth floors of the courthouse.
Appellate judges John Hill, 48, and Clyde Ashworth, 60, were both wounded and underwent surgery at a local hospital. Hill was shot in the shoulder and listed in fair condition. Ashworth was wounded in the hip and was in serious condition.
A fifth person was grazed by a bullet. He was identified as Steve Conder, 28, an assistant district attorney assigned to the appellate division.
David Farris, the third judge on the bench, escaped the fusillade of bullets.
'He (the suspect) did spray a lot of gunfire around the courtroom and we are not sure why he killed Mr. Marshall and Mr. Edwards,' said Fort Worth Police Chief Thomas Windham said.
'This individual simply stood up and started firing and did not utter any comments whatsoever.'
The man who surrendered at the TV station said he committed the crime to draw attention to his plight. He told the station a divorce case settled in Tarrant County had gone against him and that he had been planning the shooting for months.
'It's a horrible thing I've done today....Somebody needs to look into what happened to Neal....You can't simply ask people 'Here is my evidence.' So you've got to do a horrible, horrible thing to catch people's attention,' the station quoted the man as saying.
Neal was identified as the man's son, with whom he had been given visitation rights after the divorce, the station said.
The man told the TV station he carried the gun in a briefcase into the courtroom. He was quoted as saying that he walked out of the courthouse after the shooting and drove off in a van.
The man said he kept driving 'to clear his head' while the manhunt was underway.
Earlier, Windham told a news conference authorities recovered a blue suit from a restroom in a nearby office building. The police chief said he did not know if the suit belonged to the gunman, but said it was 'a strong possibility.'
Tarrant County Sheriff Tom Minter, who joined Windham at the news conference, said the gunfire was directed at the judges' bench.
'It looks to me like it was well planned,' Minter said, adding he could not confirm whether revenge might have been a motive.
It was the second fatal shooting at the century-old, limestone courthouse in the last three years.
Windham said the suspect emptied one clip and reloaded his weapon before resuming firing.
Witnesses said 10 to 12 shots were fired in the courtroom, after which the man quickly walked out into the hallway.
Within minutes, police helicopters swooped over the area and were soon concentrating their search along rivers near the downtown area. But a sweep of the grassy, wooded area did not flush out the suspect.
When the shots rang out on the fourth floor of the courthouse, employees and bystanders began running down staircases and dashing out the exits.
'I was in my courtroom (on the same floor as the shooting) when it happened,' said District Judge Sue Koenig. 'I didn't hear the shots, but a policeman came running in right afterwards.
'He told us to lock our doors. We did that and our baliff ran off to help. I'm very concerned about our security and I've been concerned about it. There have been good friends and co-workers killed and injured,' she said.
The courthouse was the scene of another fatal shooting in 1989, when a man held his estranged wife hostage in the courthouse for several hours before killing her.
Wednesday's shootings touched off immediate pleas for increased security measures.
'We are a bunch of ducks in a pool full of crazy people,' said county election administrator Robert Parton, whose office is in the basement of the courthouse.
'We have a security guard all night long when no one is here,' said Parton. 'Then, when the humans are here, we have no security. There are bailiffs here, but there is no organization.
'We have learned to live with apprehension, if not fear, in the workplace. Every day we become conditioned to it. We have ex-mental patients show up in our office, all sorts of people who have an ax to grind. Any of them potentially could have weapons,' he said.
'We all hate it,' said County Commissioner J.B. Johnson. 'Where do you expect it to happen next? Will it happen in a hospital? Will it happen in a child protection office? We don't have the answer, but we will do everything we can to protect the citizens of this community.'
Edwards was married and the father of three children. He was a law graduate of Baylor University and had been with the Dallas firm of Haynes & Boone since 1986, a spokesman said.
Marshall was chief of the appellate section at the district attorney's office. He had graduated with highest honors from the University of Texas Law School.
