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Man who shot judge near Ohio courthouse was father of Steubenville football player convicted of rape

Posted at 4:38 PM, Aug 21, 2017
and last updated 2017-08-21 23:09:11-04

The father of a Steubenville football player convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl in 2012 shot a judge who was walking from his car into the county courthouse Monday morning.

Jefferson County Prosecutor Jane Hanlin on Monday identified the shooter as Nathaniel Richmond, the father of Ma'Lik Richmond.

Jefferson County Judge Joseph Bruzzese Jr. was shot at around 8 a.m. near the courthouse in Steubenville, just across the Ohio River from West Virginia's northern panhandle, roughly 30 miles west of Pittsburgh.

Richmond died at the scene. 

Courthouse video shows both the judge and the gunman firing about five times each, said Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla.

Steubenville City Manager James Mavromatis tells WTOV-TV that Bruzzese was talking after being wounded. He was flown to a Pittsburgh-area hospital.

The attack had to be intentional because people know about the reserved spots where judges park, said one of Bruzzese's judicial colleagues.

Bruzzese, 65, hears general and domestic relations cases as one of two judges serving in Jefferson County Common Pleas Court.

Bruzzese has served on that court since 1997, according to Ohio Supreme Court records. He was most recently re-elected in 2014 for another six-year term.

Richmond was released in January 2014 after serving a little less than a year of his sentence. He returned to school and the Steubenville football team. He now attends Youngstown State University.

Hanlin said authorities aren't aware of a connection between the rape case and the shooting.