Two bailiffs killed, deputy sheriff injured in Berrien County courthouse shooting

Two bailiffs were killed and a deputy sheriff wounded in a shooting Monday afternoon at a courthouse in Berrien County, Mich., authorities said. The gunman was also killed.

The Berrien County sheriff did not go into detail about the nature of the incident, saying only that there was “a disturbance” on the courthouse’s third floor shortly before 2:30 p.m.

“We don’t have all the details as to what happened or whatever occurred or how he got the weapon,” Sheriff L. Paul Bailey said at a news conference Monday.

“The suspect has been shot and killed,” he said. Police did not identify the attacker, who they said fatally shot both bailiffs and wounded the deputy.

Chuck Heit, the Berrien County undersheriff, said both bailiffs were armed. He also said they were both “deputized by the sheriff,” which makes them the latest law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty — their deaths coming just days after a gunman killed five police officers in Dallas last week.

That brings the number of law enforcement officers fatally shot by suspects while in the line of duty to 27, up from 16 a year ago — and slightly ahead of the average number at this point in the year (25) shown in FBI data over the last decade.

[After Dallas, nation’s officers on edge as line-of-duty deaths outpace last year]

The wounded deputy was taken to nearby Lakeland Regional Hospital and treated in the emergency room, Bailey said. This deputy was in stable condition, Heit said.

At least one civilian was shot and was also in stable condition, Heit said. Bailey said that “several” civilians were hurt in the incident, but he did not say whether they sustained gunshot wounds. All of them are in stable condition at Lakeland, he said.

“They went for shelter once the shooting occurred and other brave officers were able to come to their rescue and take the shooter down,”  Bailey said.

Police will release more information later Monday about the incident, Bailey said, adding that he did not have information to share about why the gunman was at the courthouse or what exactly took place.

The Michigan State Police said they responded to the shooting. Gov. Rick Snyder (R) posted on Twitter at 3:30 p.m. that the state police “secured the scene at the Berrien County courthouse and started its investigation into the shooting that occurred this afternoon.”

Video footage posted online that appeared to be from outside the courthouse in southwestern Michigan showed numerous police vehicles,  their lights flashing, parked outside the building shortly after the shooting.

Chris Gautz, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections, which operates a probation office in the courthouse, said one of their employees was in a third-floor courtroom at the time of the shooting and saw the gunman.

“We had a probation officer in the courtroom when it happened, and the gunman ran right past [her] and the rest of the folks,” Gautz said in a telephone interview. He said the courtroom remained on lockdown.

Gautz said that the probation office’s staff were all secure and none were injured in the shooting.

-The washigton post