Attorney Claims He Was Gunman in Texas Court

FT. WORTH —  A spectator in a courtroom stood up and without a word opened fire Wednesday, killing two attorneys and seriously wounding two of three appellate judges, authorities said.

The gunman then fled the Tarrant County Courthouse and was the subject of a huge manhunt.

Later in the day, an attorney who claimed to be the gunman turned himself in at Dallas television station WFAA and was arrested.

George Lott, 45, said he attacked courthouse workers to draw attention to his troublesome divorce and child custody dispute. “It’s a horrible, horrible thing I did today . . . I’ve sinned,” he told station workers. He showed them a semiautomatic handgun hidden under his shirt and said it was the weapon used in the shootings.

It was the latest in a series of violent incidents in courthouses around the country this year and the second fatal shooting in the Tarrant County building in three years.

Shooting erupted about 10 a.m. and was heard throughout the courthouse. Employees and visitors scattered and sought shelter, witnesses said.

The gunman “was simply seated in the gallery. He stood up without any word and began shooting,” said police spokesman Ralph Swearingin.

Lott was held Wednesday night in Tarrant County Jail on preliminary charges, Swearingin said. He said evidence could be presented to prosecutors today.

Killed were Assistant County Dist. Atty. Chris Marshall, 41, and John Edwards, 32, a Dallas attorney who was shot in a stairwell near the courtroom.