Inmate killed after escaping courthouse

An inmate in chains and leg irons grabbed a deputy?s gun and shot him Monday at Jackson County Courthouse, but was shot and killed by other deputies as he drove away in a police van, authorities said.

The deputy was returning four prisoners to jail when one of them attacked him inside a secure area of the courthouse, Sheriff Stan Evans said.

?At some point, the inmate apparently obtained the officer?s weapons, shot him what looks to be three times, then took control of the van,? Evans said.

The inmate, Timothy Lemar Jones, 28, was taken to Athens Regional Medical Center. He was admitted in critical condition and died early Tuesday morning, said hospital spokeswoman Elaine Cook.

The deputy was shot in the abdomen, left arm and right leg, but the wounds did not appear to be life threatening, said Dr. Leon Haley Jr., chief of the emergency room at Grady Hospital in Atlanta, where the deputy was taken by helicopter. He said the deputy was speaking to medical personnel before he was taken into surgery.

At a news conference Monday night, Evans said the deputy, 14-year veteran Kimsey Gray, was in good condition.

The sheriff said Jones was picked up last week at Johnson State Prison in Wrightsville, where he was serving a sentence for aggravated battery, and brought to Jefferson for arraignment on an armed robbery charge.

Gray was preparing to take Jones and three other inmates back to jail, Evans said. He said investigators were trying to determine whether the other prisoners had a role in the escape attempt.

After commandeering the van, with Gray inside, Jones got less than 100 yards when he was confronted by two other deputies, who shot the inmate, the sheriff said.

Evans said policy requires that inmates be transported with belly chains and leg irons and accompanied by an officer, and that was the case Monday.

The van was driven into a chain-link fence along a lane leading up to the courthouse. Television footage showed the windshield with three bullet holes.