The Ohio judge shot outside of a local courthouse Monday morning was overseeing a wrongful-death case brought by his suspected shooter.
Nathaniel Richmond ambushed Judge Joseph J. Bruzzese Jr. outside of the Jefferson County Courthouse in Steubenville around 8 a.m. and was shot dead by a probation officer.
Richmond is also the father of Ma’lik Richmond – one of two then-football star teens found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl after a booze-fueled party in 2012.
Bruzzese, who also was armed, returned fire, an official said, and he was rushed to a Pittsburgh-area hospital by helicopter. He is believed to be in stable condition.
“Thank God he’s not a good shot,” Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla said Monday morning, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Police took another person into custody.
Richmond filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the Jefferson County Metropolitan Housing Authority in April, and Bruzzese was overseeing the case, court records show.
The housing authority was asking Bruzzese to dismiss Richmond’s punitive damages claims in a hearing set for Aug. 28.
The judge did not oversee the trial for the Aug. 11, 2012 Steubenville High School rape case that gained national attention — but he did ask that an outside judge be appointed to convene the grand jury due to unproven allegations of a cover-up.
Ma’lik Richmond, who was 16 at the time of the incident, served nearly 10 months of a year-long sentence in juvenile detention after being convicted of raping a minor in March 2013.
Recently, he was given the opportunity to become a member of the football team at Youngstown State University, prompting backlash.
The Ohio university said that Richmond would not be playing in games for the fall 2017 season, but would remain on the team as a practice player.
The other student who was convicted in the rape case along with Richmond is Trent Mays.
With Post Wires