Conviction Reversed for Atlanta Assistant Principal

The state's top court has reversed the conviction of a Fulton County assistant principal sentenced to 22 years in prison for shooting his wife.
Rodney Denson, who worked at Kennedy Middle School, had pleaded guilty to aggravated assault after shooting his wife, Elletta Bailey at their home in Fairburn.
The Georgia Supreme Court's unanimous opinion handed down Monday reverses the conviction.
It says that according to court transcripts, Denson was never advised that by pleading guilty he was waiving his constitutional right protecting him from testifying against himself.

(AP)

Student claims self defense in shooting

A 19-year-old Savannah State University student says he fired in self defense when he shot and wounded a fellow student on campus last month. Devon McIntosh told the Savannah Morning News in a jailhouse interview that he shot 22-year-old Quinton Winfield after he came to McIntosh's campus apartment and began punching him in the head. McIntosh said Winfield was angry that McIntosh had stood up for a woman Winfield had insulted. He said he kept a handgun in his bedroom. Winfield was shot twice, in the arm and torso, Nov. 21 and treated at a local hospital. Police arrested McIntosh when they found him hiding in the trunk of his car. McIntosh remains jailed in Chatham County on aggravated assault charges.

(Associated Press)

Student shot at Savannah State in good condition

School officials say a Savannah State University sophomore shot during a fight with another student remains in good condition at a hospital. But officials declined to release his name.

University spokeswoman Loretta Heyward said Sunday the student who was shot in the abdomen and arm was doing well.

Another Savannah State sophomore, 19-year-old Devon McIntosh, faces aggravated assault and possibly other charges in the shooting. He's being held in Chatham County jail. It was not immediately known if he has an attorney.

The shooting happened Friday morning at University Commons, a campus residential complex south of Tiger Arena.

All classes Friday and Saturday were canceled, but will resume Monday.

(AP)

Officials up reward for alleged killer to $20,000

Michael Jason Registe. (FBI)

A renewed effort is under way to capture a man wanted in a nearly 1-year-old double homicide case in Columbus.

The FBI and Columbus Police announced Wednesday that the reward for information leading to the capture of Michael Jason Registe was increased from $5,000 to $20,000.

Police said Registe is wanted in the shooting deaths of 21-year-old Randy Newton Jr., and 20-year-old Bryan Kilgore. Both men were gunned down on July 20th, 2007 in the parking lot of Cross Creek Apartments.

FBI Senior Agent Donnie Green said he believes someone know Registe's whereabouts, but won't come forward.

The FBI website page on Registe warns that he should be considered armed and dangerous.

Information from: Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.

(With The Associated Press)

Police: Hospital Gunman Hit Wrong Person

Investigators outside the emergency room of Doctors Hospital in Columbus, GA., where one of the triple homicides took place on 03/27/08. (Dave Bender)

A man who held a grudge against a worker at the hospital where his mother died shot and killed the wrong person, investigators testified Monday, citing a confession to the slayings of three people.


Johnston, suspected in triple homicide. (Columbus Police)

Charles Johnston, 63, told authorities he took extra ammunition and three guns to the scene because he "didn't know what to expect," the detectives said.

Johnston was ordered held without bond at the hearing in Columbus Recorders Court, where he appeared in a wheelchair. An officer shot Johnston in the shoulder after the killings Thursday at Doctors Hospital in Columbus.

A court-appointed attorney for Johnston has not been named. Charles Lykins, who represented Johnston at Monday's hearing as public defender for the Recorder's Court, had no comment.

The hearing came just hours after funerals were held for two of the victims — registered nurse Peter Wright, 44, and James Baker, 76, who was shot getting out of his car in the parking lot.
Police say Johnston held a grudge and targeted a male nurse who had worked at the hospital who he said had provided negligent care to his mother before her death in 2004.

Detective Joby Duncan said that he took Johnston's statement after he signed a waiver of his rights, and that the confession was videotaped.

"He just told me that that morning he woke up and was tired of thinking about what happened to his mother years ago," Duncan said.

Johnston told police he went to the hospital twice Thursday to look for "an individual he knew as Peterson to settle something with him," Duncan said.

Johnston left when he didn't find the person he was looking for, then returned about an hour later and began shooting, Duncan said.

Wright, who was working on the fifth floor, was shot after Johnston heard someone call him 'Pete,' police said.

"Peter Wright never attended (Johnston's) mother at the Doctors Hospital," police Lt. Charles Kennedy said. "I am assuming he just made a mistake because he overheard a guy being called Peter.

"He just mistakenly shot Peter Wright thinking it was Peterson," he said.

Next shot was Leslie Harris, a 44-year-old administrative assistant who was shot in the chest after he happened upon the shooter.

Duncan said Johnston later shot Baker in the head, wrongly believing Baker pulled into a parking space in front of him to "prevent him from escaping."

Nurse Karen Pridgen was one of several witnesses at the hearing. Visibly shaken, she recalled seeing Wright and Harris shot and hearing gunfire and some of what Johnston said to Wright.

"I heard him say ... 'You killed my mama,'" Pridgen said.

Johnston did not testify. Kennedy said police are not trying to find out the identity of the nurse Johnston was looking for, saying the investigation is focused on the triple homicide.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the shootings.

(The Associated Press)

Columbus: Third shooting victim dies

Law-enforcement officials confer near a Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime scene van in the parking lot of Doctors Hospital, Columbus, GA., on March 27, 2008. (Dave Bender)

A person who was shot in the head and critically wounded in Thursday afternoon's shooting spree at Doctors Hospital in Columbus, died of their wounds this evening.

The individual was shot in the hospital's parking lot by a man who police said bore a grudge against staffers who had treated his mother several years earlier. The man shot and killed the other two victims in the hospital a short time earlier.

The three have not been identified as this update was posted, pending notification of their families.

Columbus Police Chief Ricky Boren said 63-year-old Charles Johnston, a retired Muscogee County schoolteacher killed a male nurse who had taken care of his mother, who had died at the hospital from natural causes:

“The individual had carried a grudge against at least one of the nurses involved in her care from 2004 until today. He came here to the hospital carrying three weapons. He was carrying a nine millimeter automatic, a .380 automatic and a .32 revolver.”

Larry Sanders, CEO of Columbus Regional Hospital released a statement over the slaying:

"On behalf of the board of directors, medical staff and all the employees of Doctors Hospital and the entire Columbus Regional family, I extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of the vicitms in this shooting. We are deeply saddened at the tragic loss of these three lives. We are reminded of how a tragedy can strike without warning and that life is precious. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of their families. We ask that everyone in the community keep them in their thougts and prayers as well."

Information about family members who were at the hospital at the time of the shootings is available at 706-494-4057.

Click here for more GPB News coverage about the shootings at Doctors Hospital.

Columbus: 2 dead, 2 wounded in hospital shooting (updated)

Columbus Police Command and Control van outside of the emergency room of Doctors Hospital in Columbus, GA., where one of the shootings took place, on March 27, 2008. (Dave Bender)

A Muscogee County man went on a shooting spree at Doctors Hospital Thursday afternoon, killing two people and wounding a third.



Columbus Chief of Police Ricky Boren talking with reporters at the scene of the shooting, Doctors Hospital, Columbus, GA., on March 27, 2008. (Dave Bender)

Columbus Police Chief Ricky Boren says 63-year-old Charles Johnston, reportedly a retired Muscogee County schoolteacher killed a male nurse who had taken care of his mother, who had died at the hospital from natural causes:

“The individual had carried a grudge against at least one of the nurses involved in her care from 2004 until today. He came here to the hospital carrying three weapons. He was carrying a nine millimeter automatic, a .380 automatic and a .32 revolver.”

Boren, who told reporters that police received a call for assistance at 2:17 pm, says Johnston then shot and killed a second person, and fled to the parking lot. There, he then shot and critically wounded a third individual traveling in a vehicle, as they pulled into the lot.


Law-enforcement officials confer near a Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime scene van in the parking lot of Doctors Hospital, Columbus, GA., on March 27, 2008. (Dave Bender)

Police say the suspect then opened fire on a Muscogee County deputy marshal and a Columbus police office who had been called to the scene. Both returned fire, and were unhurt.

A police detective who arrived on the scene fired at Johnston, wounding him. Johnston was operated on and is in police custody.

Information about family members who were at the hospital at the time of the shootings is available at 706-494-4057.

LaGrange youth killed in bizarre gun mishap

Natorrin Brown, a 17-year-old of LaGrange resident was fatally wounded shortly before midnight Tuesday, in a bizarre gun mishap.

Brown was among a group of people visiting with a friend, who was showing some of the visitors a gun hanging in his attic, when the loaded weapon went off.

A Troup Co. sheriff says the man was showing how the stock of a loaded AK-47 would go in and out a few inches, and "he disturbed the position of the gun." When it went back into position, the trigger hit a nail and the gun went off, hitting Brown as he stood in the doorway.

The gun fell to the floor, but Turner said gunpowder residue indicated it had fired while it was on the wall. To test the accident theory, sheriff's Chief Investigator Charles Nixon unloaded the gun, cocked it and put it back on the wall. He bumped it with his hand and the trigger activated when it slid back into place.

Nixon said he used a string to determine that the gun barrel would have been pointing where the victim stood. Nixon said he is conferring with the district attorney's office about the possibility of presenting charges to a grand jury.

(The Associated Press)

Ft. Benning: one wounded in shooting

A man was wounded in a shooting at Ft. Benning on Monday, May 14. The 19-year-old was shot by a 22-year-old man, according to the FBI.

Public Affairs Office Spokesperson Elsie Jackson told GPB News that the victim's injuries were "not life threatening." The victim is in stable condition at a Columbus Hospital.

The gunman turned himself in to the Columbus Police, and is being charged with assault with intent to commit murder.

VA Tech: Jamie Bishop Scholarship Fund set up

Virginia Tech University has established a scholarship in the memory of Professor Jamie Bishop, killed in Monday's shooting spree.

Prof. Mary Paddock, a German teacher at the school's Foreign Languages department and a friend of Bishop's, told NBC’s Today show that The Jamie Bishop and Jocelyne Couture-Nowak Scholarships will be granted to German and French majors at the university.

Jocelyne Couture-Nowak taught French at the school and was also killed in the attack. Sixteen of the 32 people who died in the melee were faculty members and students of the university's foreign language department.

---

Donations can be made to the Virginia Tech Foundation for the Jocelyne Couture-Nowak Scholarship (for French majors) or the Jamie Bishop Scholarship (for German Majors):

Virginia Tech Foundation
University Development
902 Prices Fork Road
Blacksburg, VA 24061

Details of a memorial candlelight vigil for Jamie Bishop, held at a church in his hometown of Pine Mt. GA., Tuesday evening are here.

The interview with Paddock is here.

Pine Mountain: Candlelit vigil remembers Jamie Bishop

Jamie Bishop and wife Steffie in an
undated photograph.

Almost 300 of Pine Mountain's 1,500 close-knit residents packed the First United Methodist Church Tuesday evening, in a candlelight vigil for Professor Jamie Bishop, gunned down in his classroom at Virginia Tech University Monday.

Worshipers gather at
First United Methodist Church
after memorial service. (Dave Bender)

Reverend Matthew Mitchell led an evocative service in the candlelit room, reading out a moving, and at times, humorous sermon that Jamie had himself written and given in 1989. Chaplain Quincy Brown of nearby LaGrange College, who also held a memorial service earlier in the afternoon, read the 23rd Psalm and The Lord's Prayer. The Chancel choir sang Amazing Grace.

"It was quite a nice service we had here today," said Sam Hill, a Pine Mountain resident and friend of the family of the vigil. "The crux of the sermon was, that you never know when your time's going to come, and to be prepared."

Eaborating on the idea of a predestined fate, Hall said, "We all thought in the congregation that Matthew was given a copy of that sermon, so that he could share it with the congregation here tonight."

Stunned residents of this rural town, near Calloway Gardens, know the Bishop family well. Michael Bishop, Jamie's father is a professor at LaGrange College, his mother Jeri is a counselor at Rosemont Elementary, where Jamie attended school.

Reverend Mitchell also knows the family well. Residents and churchgoers say the Bishops are active in the church; Michael teaches Sunday school there.

"You can't have a finer family in the church than the Bishops," Mitchell told GPB News. "They're the kind of people who, after a Wednesday night dinner, clean all the pots and scrub the floors," he said. "They're very involved in all ministry aspects of the church."

Pam Sewell, who teaches at Rosemont, said Jeri spoke with the school's principal, Natalie Givins on Monday night about how to break the awful news to the children:

"'Just do one thing, and tell those kids just to do the best they can,'" Bishop said. Sewell said the issues weren't immediately discussed with the pupils on Tuesday. "If any of the children had heard anything on the news, we just said, 'we'll talk about it later.'"

"'When Mrs. Bishop got back, she was going to need a lot of hugs, and that those would be the band-aids on her heart,'" Givins gently explained to the children, Sewell said.

"Then all of our fourth and fifth-graders children made hearts, with little messages to her on them, and they're all over her door, waiting on her." Sewell said, adding that she was "sad and hurt for [the Bishops] and all the families. We're here [at the vigil] to respect and honor her."

Michael and Jeri, and Jamie's sister Stephanie attended a memorial service the same evening at Virginia Tech University. They drove there on Monday, as soon at they were told of Jamie's death.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of this story.

Meanwhile, a Columbus resident and grandmother of two students who attend Virginia Tech University is breathing a lot easier today.

Helen Burke, 81, anxiously watched her television hour after gory hour on Monday, appalled by scenes of the shooting mayhem that killed 32 students and faculty.

But her granddaughter, Arlane Gordon-Bray, was not in immediate danger having stayed in her room on campus as the day's bloody events unfolded. Only much later in the afternoon did Burke get word that her grandson, Marque Burke, was also safe.

Gordon-Bray is an assistant residence hall manager at the school, and an international studies and French major, according to a story appearing in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.

Pine Mountain resident among Virginia Tech slaying victims (Updated)

Christopher James Bishop
Undated photo from his
web site.

35-year-old Professor Jamie Bishop of Pine Mountain was among the 33 killed -- including the gunman -- in Monday's mass slaying at Virginia Tech.

Bishop was the first person shot in the Norris Hall academic building.

Bishop was previously a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Georgia where he obtained bachelor and master's degrees in German.

"We don't have much happening here, as far as the bad stuff..." Steve Earles, a close friend of the family in Pine Mountain told GPB News.

"They'll be a lot of support and love through out Christian faith ... for the Bishops," offered Earles, who teaches Sunday School together with Michael Bishop, Jamie's father.

Pastor Matthew Mitchell of the First United Methodist Church, where the Bishop family attends services said the family were “devoted church-goers and a part of our community.” Mitchell said the community was “in shock” from the news, and characterized the family as, “well-known, well-loved - just wonderful people.”

A memorial service for Bishop will be held at the LaGrange College chapel at five PM on Tuesday. A candlelight vigil is planned for seven PM, at the church.

Jamie Bishop is survived by his wife, Steffie Hofer, his sister, Stephanie, and his parents, Michael and Jeri.

Steffie is also a German professor at Virginia Tech. Michael is a professor at LaGrange College and a highly-regarded science fiction writer, and Jeri is a counselor at Rosemont Elementary School in LaGrange.

The parents drove to Virginia Tech soon after receiving word of the shooting.

President George Bush is scheduled to attend a memorial service at the school today.

Another Georgia native -- freshman Ryan Fowler of Lincoln County in east Georgia -- was not in the dorm where the first two victims were killed, because he had an early-morning meeting.

Bishop's professional website is here: http://www.memory39.com/

This post will be updated as more information becomes available.

Martinez resident among those dead at Virginia Tech

Credit: The Marching Virginians

http://www.music.vt.edu/performance/ensembles/mv/index.shtml

Nearly three dozen people are confirmed dead in a shooting spree on the Virginia Tech campus, including 22-year old Ryan Clark of Martinez, Georgia.

Clark was a resident assistant at the school's West Ambler Johnston dormitory and was one of the first killed by the lone shooter.

Marcie Anderson teaches A-P history at Lakeside High School in Evans, Georgia where Ryan was a student.

She remembers Ryan as a good student, well liked by both faculty and students.

"He always had such an upbeat outlook on life, you couldn't help being caught up in his personality."

Anderson says her favorite memory of Ryan is that Clark often complained about the difficulty of his A-P history assignments.

"But, he did them and then afterwards, when he would come back and visit he would always say, 'I used to complain so much, but it really helped.' That was a compliment in itself."

According to Virginia Tech's website, Clark completed both his biology and English degrees in December 2006. He was working toward his Ph.D. in psychology with a focus in cognitive neuroscience.

Clark was also a member of the schools band, The Marching Virginians.

Ryan Clark is survived by his twin brother, Bryan, and his parents, Stan and Lettie Clark of Martinez, Georgia.

President Bush is scheduled to visit Virginia Tech for a memorial service today.

Classes there have been cancelled indefinitely, as officials there try to piece together a motive behind the killings.