A rural Kentucky county sheriff shot and killed a judge in his courthouse chambers following an argument on Thursday.
Letcher County Sheriff Shawn Stines has been charged with murder after allegedly gunning down District Judge Kevin Mullins following a dispute inside the courthouse in Whitesville, Kentucky State Police said.
Details about what sparked the argument have not been released.
Mullins, 54, was struck multiple times and pronounced dead at the scene. He had spent 15 years on the bench.
Stines, 53, surrendered to authorities without incident, police said.
Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter said he was “shocked by this act of violence” and that the court staffers were “shaken by this news.”
Gunfire erupted at the courthouse, located about 150 miles southeast of Lexington, just before 3 p.m., prompting several area schools to be placed on lockdown, according to local reports.
The shooting remains under investigation.
The courthouse will remain closed on Friday, Letcher County’s judge-executive ordered.
“There is far too much violence in this world, and I pray there is a path to a better tomorrow,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in response to the shooting.
Mullins served as a district judge in Letcher County since he was appointed by former Gov. Steve Beshear in 2009. He spent the previous decade as an assistant commonwealth attorney, WKYT reported.
As a judge, Mullins gained attention for his efforts to offer those suffering from drug addiction treatment options rather than throwing them behind bars.
In 2010, he started a program allowing inmates with substance use disorders to enroll in inpatient treatment as a condition of their pretrial release.
He helped develop a program called Addiction Recovery Care to offer peer support services in the courthouse, which has since been adopted in at least 50 counties in Kentucky.
The judge also served as a founding member of the Responsive Effort to Support Treatment in Opioid Recovery Efforts Leadership Team.
Stines was elected as the Sheriff of Letcher County in 2018 and reelected in 2022, according to WKYT.
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