Waking the Sleeping Demon...26 Hours of Terror in Atlanta Paperback - 2008

From the publisher

Waking the Sleeping Demon...26 Hours of Terror in Atlanta is the riveting true story of former Fulton County Prosecutor Ash Joshi's terrifying 26-hour ordeal as one of the targets of the March 11, 2005 Fulton County Courthouse shooter Brian Nichols. The defendant, Brian Nichols was scheduled to appear in court for the rape and kidnapping at gunpoint of his ex-girlfriend. This was the second time in less than two weeks Nichols was being tried on these charges as the first trial ended in a hung jury. Determined not to go to prison, Nichols took matters into his own hands and brutally beat the female deputy responsible for escorting him to the courtroom and escaped custody with the deputy's weapon and ammunition. Nichols methodically set out on a killing spree of the people he felt responsible for his predicament. In less than 15 minutes, Nichols held five hostages inside the chambers of Judge Rowland Barnes, crept up behind Judge Barnes an d executed him by shooting him in the back of the head. He then gunned down the court reporter and managed to make his way outside the courthouse and killed a Sheriff's deputy on the street. Nichols set out on a car-jacking spree which ended with the murder of an FBI Agent ater that evening. Waking the Sleeping Demon will transport the reader moment by moment through the courthouse and reveal Joshi's thoughts and actions on that frightening day. Although nightmares of that day are less frequent, Joshi will never completely forgive himself for not putting Nichols behind bars the first time around. Joshi comes to grips with his role in the murders of four innocent people and the shattered lives of others left in the wake of the worst courthouse shootingsin recent memory.