A small eastern Kentucky community is reeling and searching for answers after a Letcher County sheriff was arrested and charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Judge Kevin Mullins in his district office Thursday afternoon.
Matt Butler, commonwealth attorney for Letcher County, said the community "is completely devastated" and asked for prayers for the judge's family.
"If you knew Letcher County, you would know that families stay tightly connected at all times and pull even more tightly during times of unspeakable tragedy like today," he said in a statement late Thursday. "I know personally that the definition of family can extend beyond biological relation and I urge everyone to remember that our community is a safe and welcoming place."
Butler said his children and Mullins' children are first cousins "but act like siblings." He said his children "have cried and cried and begged to see their uncle."
The shooting occurred shortly before 3 p.m. at the Letcher County courthouse in Whitesburg, about 217 miles southeast of Louisville. Letcher County Sheriff Shawn M. Stines, a two-term sheriff, was arrested and charged with one count of murder, Kentucky State Police Trooper Matt Gayheart said.
A motive remains unclear, but Gayheart said preliminary information indicates that Stines "fatally shot Mullins following an argument inside the courthouse."
Mullins, 54, was shot multiple times and died at the scene. Stines, 43, surrendered to authorities at the courthouse.
Other people were inside the building, but no one else was in the judge's chambers.
Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Laurance B. VanMeter said he was "shocked" and the "court system is shaken by this news."
"My prayers are with his family and the Letcher County community as they try to process and mourn this tragic loss. I ask for respect and privacy on their behalf," he said in a statement.
In the wake of the shooting, circuit and district courts as well as the office of the circuit court clerk are closed "until court operations can be resumed," Kentucky Courts said.
The case will be handled by Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman and the commonwealth’s attorney for the 27th Judicial Circuit Jackie Steele. Butler said in his statement that he had recused himself and his office from the case because of his familial relationship with Mullins.