Michigan courthouse shooting suspect identified: Larry Gordon shot two bailiffs and injured two more in fatal attack
The 44-year-old was killed by authorities - his motive is not yet known
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Your support makes all the difference.The man who shot dead two bailiffs inside a Michigan court house has been identified as 44-year-old Larry Darnell Gordon.
Gordon stole a gun at the Berrien County Courthouse and killed two people, Ron Kienzle and Joe Zangaro, as he was being moved from a holding cell.
He was then shot dead by authorities, who have not given an exact motive for his crime.
Sheriff Paul Bailey said at a press conference: “I’m going to try and get through this, I’ve lost friends today… I’m here with a heavy heart.”
The suspect was facing charges of kidnapping, sexual assault and obstructing police, according to WZZM. He was arrested on 20 April.
During the attack in the courthouse, he took hostages on the second floor of the building.
After the incident, two other victims were hospitalized, including a sheriff’s deputy called James Atterberry Jr, who was shot in the left arm and finger, and a civilian called Kenya Ellis.
“We all need to reach out and be supportive of law enforcement in our state and across the country,” tweeted Michigan governor Rick Snyder after the attack.
Gordon, born in Battle Creek, Michigan divorced his wife Jessica and the mother of his six-year-old child in February 2016.
On Facebook, he said he owned a car cleaning service called AutoSpa Mobile Detailing.
Jessica Gordon told WOOD-TV that officers and a chaplain came to her house to tell her about her ex-husband. She also told the Detroit Free Press that her ex-husband was "not a monster".
She spoke to him on 10 July, the day before the attack, and said she had no idea of his plans.
“I believe he was probably terrified of having to go to prison and not seeing his family again. All he wanted to do was get home to our baby girl," she said.
She added: “He was an amazing man that got mixed up with the wrong people. He loved his children and me and his mother and sister with everything that he had. Our wedding anniversary would have been tomorrow.”
The attack comes days after 25-year-old Micah Xavier Johnson gunned down five white police officers in Dallas, Texas.
The courthouse is situated about 50 miles west of Kalamazoo, the town where an Uber driver went on a rampage in February, shooting six people dead.
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