<p>A sheriff's decision to fire eight deputies over the March courthouse shootings that led to the deaths of a judge and three others isn't sitting well with those who lost their jobs.</p><p>One of the deputies and a lawyer for a second said Sheriff Myron Freeman's actions were unjustified and the firings were done with little explanation.</p><p>"I was shocked," said Maj. Lucious Johnson, who had been head of the jail division. "The only thing the sheriff did was he invited me into his office, extended his hand, smiled and told me I was fired."</p><p>The firings, announced Friday, followed an independent panel's report critical of the department's handling of the March 11 shootings at the Fulton County Courthouse when rape defendant Brian Nichols allegedly killed a judge, a court reporter, sheriff's deputy and later a federal agent.</p><p>Security has been tightened at the courthouse since the shootings, and several investigations and security reviews have been launched.</p><p>Johnson was accused of not responding properly after metal shanks were found in Nichols' shoes two days before the shootings. But Johnson, in an interview Monday, said Freeman had never complained about his work before and did not fully explain why he was being fired.</p><p>"That's what baffled me," said Johnson, who worked at the sheriff's department for 10 months. "Crazy things happen in this world."</p><p>Johnson said he was told that because he was considered an unclassified employee due to his administrative rank, he can't appeal the sheriff's decision.</p><p>Another fired deputy, Capt. Chelesa Lee, was accused of ordering a subordinate responsible for monitoring the courthouse security cameras to get her breakfast around the time of the shootings.</p><p>Lee's attorney, Michael Puglise, plans to appeal the firing. He contends Lee only asked the employee to get her breakfast on the deputy's way back from his break, and that there was still another deputy monitoring the cameras at the time.</p><p>Puglise said Monday he believes the firings are an attempt by Freeman to "divert the public's attention from his own incompetence. "I would expect this is going to backlash on him," the attorney said.</p><p>A spokeswoman for Freeman declined to comment on the firings Monday.</p><p>In addition to the eight firings, two other deputies were suspended. Three more deputies received lesser punishments.</p><p>Besides Johnson and Lee, the other deputies who were fired were identified in county records released Monday as Maj. Orlando Whitehead, who was in command of courthouse security; Sgt. Jerome Dowdell; Lt. Twantta Mathis; Deputy Paul Tamer; Deputy Joel Middlebrooks; and detention officer Barron Ross.</p><p>There was no answer Monday at a telephone listing for Whitehead, and Dowdell declined to comment when reached at his home in Jonesboro.</p><p>"My attorney and I will address the media at some time real soon," Dowdell said.</p><p>Telephone listings for the remaining deputies could not be located. A letter from Whitehead to Freeman says Whitehead, who had been with the department 17 years, handed in his retirement papers the day after being notified of his firing.</p><p>The eight dismissal letters do not cite specific reasons for the firings.</p><p>One of the two suspended deputies, Lt. Gary Reid, is accused in a letter from Freeman released Monday of calling in sick on the day of the shootings, even though he wasn't sick and instead was attending an awards ceremony.</p><p>As the AP reported in March, Reid had assigned himself as additional security for Nichols' rape trial after the shanks were found in Nichols' shoes.</p><p>The sheriff's department has said Reid's replacement wasn't in the courtroom at the time of the shootings because Nichols' trial hadn't resumed and the judge was attending to unrelated civil proceedings. But in the suspension letter, Freeman said Reid, when he called in sick, never expressed any security concerns or requested additional deputies for the courtroom in his absence.</p><p>"You had a duty and a responsibility as a supervisor to make sure your chain of command was going to oversee the proper and secure handling of Brian Nichols," Freeman said in the letter.</p><p>In a letter to Freeman, Reid accepted responsibility for violating employee work rules.</p><p>Reid, the security supervisor for the slain judge's courtroom, had decided for the remainder of Nichols' rape trial to station himself in the courtroom.</p><p>Reid planned to be in the courtroom any time the judge and his personnel were there, and he did so the day after the shanks were found. However, he was not there the next day, which was when the shootings occurred.</p><p>For Johnson, meanwhile, the firing was especially difficult in light of his lengthy career in law enforcement. He served stateside as a military policeman during the Vietnam War and worked in corrections for the federal prison system for 26 years.</p><p>"I don't think it was justified," Johnson said.</p>
