The Yehudah Project:2 more deputies Killed in Michigan, stop the violence!

T. JOSEPH, Mich. — Two bailiffs were killed and a deputy sheriff wounded in a shooting Monday afternoon at a courthouse in Berrien County, Mich., when an inmate being transferred from a cell grabbed a gun and opened fire as he tried to flee, authorities said.

The gunman — identified by police as 44-year-old Larry Darnell Gordon– was shot and killed by other bailiffs, but only after he had shot four people, two of them fatally, Sheriff L. Paul Bailey said at a news conference. In addition to the bailiffs and the deputy, the inmate shot a civilian in the arm.

“All indication is that he was trying to break out of jail,” Bailey said.

Bailey identified the bailiffs who were killed as Joseph Zangaro, 61, and Ron Kienzle, 63.

Zangaro, head of courthouse security, retired from the Michigan State Police and has been working with the county trial court system since 2004. Kienzle, a former police sergeant and serviceman, has been working for the court system since 2005. 

The incident began on the courthouse’s third floor shortly before 2:30 p.m. As Gordon was being taken out of a holding cell to go to a courtroom for an arraignment, a fight took place and he “was able to get the deputy’s gun away,” Bailey said.

Gordon moved out of that area, shot and killed the two bailiffs, and then took “several hostages for a short period of time until he tried to leave through another door,” Bailey said. That’s when two other bailiffs shot and killed Gordon. All the officers involved were armed.