The Associated Press
JONESBORO, Ark. — People inside the Craighead County Courthouse were going about their Monday as usual. Starting off what they thought would be a normal day, a normal week. That is until word quickly spread that there was an armed man inside the courtroom. During court Monday morning, the normalcy quickly changed.
“One of the officers informed me that a gentleman in the courtroom had a gun in his possession and that they had apprehended him,” says Circuit Judge Victor Hill.
42 year old Kevin Brady was awaiting his sentencing from Judge Hill for theft of property charges. Apparently last night, Brady told a woman his plan to kill. After telling her he was going to bring a gun to court and shoot an inmate also there in the courtroom, she decided to tell his secret.
“They approached him and made him put his hands on his hand. They patted him down and he did have a 38 caliber derringer in his pocket,” says Sheriff Jack McCann.
A loaded handgun with 2 bullets inside, the pistol was ready to use. Sheriff McCann says just at the Craighead County Jail alone, Brady’s made 17 stays behind bars and also served time in the state prison.
“I’ve known this individual like I say for 25 or 30 years and I consider him to be a very dangerous person. I am thoroughly convinced that he would have shot this individual if he’d had the chance, “says Sheriff McCann.
I asked the question on the minds of many. How can someone just walk into a courtroom full of law enforcement officials armed with a loaded handgun?
“Like today, everyone’s just allowed to walk into the courtroom at will, enter and exit and there’s no security,” says Sheriff McCann.
But for people like Judge Hill who spend many days inside the courtroom, those security measures are no longer acceptable and he says something’s got to change.
“I’m hoping we can have the metal detectors and perhaps the wands put in place on a more regular basis to prevent things like this from happening in the future. This is the first time to my knowledge that someone’s brought a weapon into the courtroom but once is too often and we could have had disastrous results if not apprehended by the officers,” says Judge Hill
“Known him for years, dealt with him for years and he’s dangerous and I have no doubt that he would have done this and shot anybody that got in his way,” adds Sheriff McCann.
Stay with K8 News Tuesday as we investigate how other courtrooms in the area would handle this same situation and if there are any plans in place in case a situation like this escalates.