Letcher County Courthouse in Whitesburg. (Kentucky Court of Justice)
A sheriff in an Eastern Kentucky county has been arrested after allegedly fatally shooting a district court judge, according to a report from a local newspaper.
The Mountain Eagle reported Thursday afternoon that Letcher County Sheriff Mickey Stines was arrested after shooting District Judge Kevin Mullins at the county courthouse in Whitesburg. The newspaper reported Stines was handcuffed in the foyer of the courthouse.
Mullins’ death was confirmed by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear in a social media post. Beshear wrote he’d been informed a Letcher County district judge had been shot and killed in his chambers.
“There is far too much violence in this world, and I pray there is a path to a better tomorrow,” Beshear wrote on social media.
Letcher County Schools posted on social media that Kentucky State Police had advised them to go into lockdown because of the shooting.
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman in a social media post wrote he and 27th Judicial Circuit Commonwealth’s Attorney Jackie Steele, who serves Knox and Laurel counties, would collaborate as special prosecutors in the case involving the “deadly shooting” and that the two would “fully investigate and pursue justice.”
An emailed request for information sent to the state police trooper handling public relations for Kentucky State Police Post 13, which covers Letcher County, was not immediately returned.
This story has been updated.
