The Associated Press
SCOTTSBORO, Alabama- A man shot two people on the lawn of a county courthouse after a hearing in a domestic case because he disagreed with a children’s visitation arrangement, an official said.
The man and woman shot at the Jackson County Courthouse on Wednesday suffered head wounds and appeared to be in “very serious” condition, said John Tyson Jr., a Mobile County district attorney who was campaigning for state attorney general at the courthouse in northeast Alabama.
The suspect was tackled by a marine conservation officer wearing civilian clothes and apparently without a weapon, Tyson said. Officers “quickly joined in” to subdue the man.
The suspect was stopped only moments before other people “would have been in harm’s way,” Tyson said.
“He said, ‘OK, OK. You’re not going to have any more trouble from me,’” Tyson said.
The suspect said he shot the two “because his children were allowed to visit with somebody he didn’t want them to visit,” Tyson said.
Further details were not immediately available from the county sheriff’s office or the Scottsboro police department.