[Ben E Lou]

I've met David Allman several times. He's very involved in the Fulton County branch of the ministry I work for.

Witness tells of horror at Fulton courthouse

David Allman, an Atlanta real estate attorney, was among several people taken hostage by gunman Brian Nichols during Friday's shooting spree.

Allman, 51, said he had arrived early to the Fulton County courthouse, hoping Judge Rowland Barnes would hear his real estate case, but Barnes had already started hearing other cases. So Allman sat alone in a waiting room, drinking a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper.

He saw two women, a court secretary and a calendar clerk, walking toward him with a well-dressed man carrying a gun. He didn't think anything of it, since he assumed the man was an undercover police officer. He recognized the gun as the standard issue weapon of a sheriff's deputy.

But then the man turned the gun on Allman and, without a word, motioned with the gun for all three of them to walk into the Barnes's private office. He ordered them all onto the floor and handcuffed Allman and the secretary.

The two women, he said, "were just hysterical."

"I knew why he was there," Allman said. "He's after the judge."

Nichols ripped the phone out of the wall and searched all three for cell phones. Then he popped in and out of the judge's office two or three times, each time for only about 30 seconds, Allman said.

"Where's the judge?", he demanded of the women.

The secretary told him Barnes was in the courtroom.

"Which courtroom?", he asked. And she told him.

Nichols was strangely focused and calm, Allman said.

"He was quite calm, but he was keyed up," Allman said. "He acted like a cop. He was that calm."

Nichols exited the room again, and there were sounds of a scuffle. The women started feeling better, since they thought he was being subdued by a deputy. Then Nichols walked in with the deputy — a heavy-set man perhaps 60 years old — but it was Nichols carrying the deputy's gun. Now he had two guns.

Nichols put the deputy on the floor behind the judge's desk and handcuffed the man with his own handcuffs. Allman said he snatched off the deputy's tie, presumably to tie up the other hostage, but realized it was a clip on tie. Then he tried to wrench off Allman's tie but, while still holding a gun in the other hand, but couldn't manage it.

Nichols heard a code come over the deputy's radio — "158, 158". He then keyed the handset and said "158, 158" into the headset. "I thought that was pretty bold," Allman said.

After putting the deputy in the closet, Nichols left for about a minute.

"We heard two shots, and screams," Allman said. "And then nothing happens."

The deputy then got out of the closet and, with his hands cuffed in front of him, started calling into his radio: "There's a shooter loose on the 8th floor of the old building. There's a shooter loose on the 8th floor. We think he shot a judge."

Seconds later, three people came running into Barnes' private chamber, saying that somebody shot the judge. Allman told them to lock the door for safety. And they called 911.

Then about 10 deputies came in and took them all into a jury room. It was there that Allman heard from witnesses what happened in the courtroom.

Nichols entered the courtroom from a door behind the judge. He walked over to the judge, put the gun to the back of his head, and — without saying a word, pulled the trigger, Allman said.

Nichols then fired a shot at the court reporter.

One of the civil attorneys at the desk in front of the judge ran out the courtroom's double doors, and Nichols ran out behind him.

Allman recalled he had a gun pulled on him some 30 years ago in court in a domestic dispute case, but the husband did not shoot and gave up. This time, he said he was thinking, "I'm just collateral. But I know we may all be collateral damage."

Allman added: "I'm just glad he didn't shoot me. I knew it could happen at any second."