US courtroom killer recaptured

Courtroom killer Brian Nichols, America’s most-wanted man, was finally recaptured tonight more than a day after shooting dead a judge and two others, police said.

Hundreds of officers had been searching for Nichols after he fled in a stolen car following the murders in Atlanta.

Nichols, aged 33, had been due for trial on rape, kidnapping and assault charges when he seized his guard’s gun, shooting her, a court official and judge Rowland Barnes.

He was captured at an apartment complex in the north of the city after a siege.

Just hours earlier a US Customs agent was discovered shot to death a few miles away and police are investigating whether the killing was linked.