The State (Columbia, S.C.)

ATLANTA – The sounds of gunfire crackled through the air around 9 a.m. Friday, forever changing what was a crisp, bright, windswept March day in downtown Atlanta.

At Grady Memorial Hospital, relatives and friends grieved. Near the courthouse where the shootings took place, downtown workers scrambled to get around the areas marked off with crime tape.

And all across this interstate-crossed, high-rise city of neighborhoods, people kept a watchful eye for a green Honda Accord.

The alleged gunman, Brian Nichols, carjacked a newspaperman’s car and escaped onto downtown Atlanta’s freeway system, causing a massive manhunt, snarling the city’s thoroughfares and shaking it to its core.

Electronic message boards along Interstate 75-85 initially flashed messages telling drivers to avoid the courthouse and nearby state Capitol complex because of “police activity.”

Later, the boards included a description of the getaway car with Georgia license plate number 658-4YN.

Police vehicles lined the sides of the freeway near entrance ramps in case the car was spotted.

The city tried to keep moving despite the upheaval.

Downtown, cab driver Michael Workeshet attempted to weave his way through the snarl that had developed.

“They’ve closed about half the streets,” he said as he sat in stopped traffic for about five minutes.

At the Georgia Dome, home of the Southeastern Conference basketball tournament, thousands of fans parked their cars, then streamed into the building at about 11:30 a.m., even though the arena was less than a mile from the shooting.

Brad Davis, an SEC associate commissioner, said the league increased uniform security outside all gates but decided Friday’s four games would play on.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, speaking at a noontime news conference just outside Grady Memorial Hospital, ordered flags to half staff on government buildings in memory of the lives lost.

But he said the state would not be held hostage by the terror. “Business will continue on,” he said.

The Rev. Benford Stellmacher was at the hospital to comfort the family of the slain deputy. In his position at Covenant Ministries in nearby Decatur, Stellmacher was an acquaintance of the deceased’s mother and sister.

Around 1:30 p.m., he emerged from the emergency room and told of the grief inside.

“It’s pretty rough back there,” Stellmacher said. “It’s really, really rough.”

Just before the shooting, Stellmacher was outside the Fulton County Courthouse preparing to enter. He was scheduled to appear in a trial as a character witness.

Instead, he heard the gunfire and saw people running toward him, looks of horror gripping their faces.

“It was chaos,” Stellmacher said. “It was utter chaos. It’s something that I don’t want to experience (again) in life.”

Moments after comforting grieving family members, Stellmacher spoke of the slain officer’s heroics.

“He was serving and protecting,” Stellmacher said. “He gave his life for a life in the line of duty, and my heart goes out to his family, the judge’s family and to the reporter’s family.”

Back at the courthouse, a South African couple who arrived in Atlanta on Friday morning to start a 10-day vacation wondered what all the fuss was about.

Tourist sites like the Underground and the World of Coke, both within a block or two of the shooting site, had been closed.

Yateen Dhaya, 29, and his wife, 28-year-old Reshma Dhaya, approached the corner of Martin Luther King and Capitol avenues and saw the army of police still gathered near the courthouse on one side of the street.

On the opposite side of the intersection, a phalanx of television cameras lined the sidewalk in front of the World of Coke building.

Told the exhibit had been closed, they appeared puzzled.

They had heard about the shooting on television at their hotel, and while surprised to stumble upon the scene, the violence didn’t shock them.

“This kind of thing happens all the time in South Africa,” said Yateen Dhaya, who was holding a small video camera, recording vacation memories. “It’s a terrible thing.”

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