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Courthouse Shooter Was 'Ready To Go,' Witness Says

WFLA Photo by KATY HENNIG

Sgt. Jim Bordner and Capt. Gary Schoebel hold a press conference outside the St. Petersburg courthouse.

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT | The Tampa Tribune
and BAIRD HELGESON | The Tampa Tribune
and STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 8, 2008

Updated: 05/08/2008 08:35 pm

ST. PETERSBURG Glen Powell came to the courthouse prepared.

He was armed with a .45-caliber handgun, 71 extra rounds of ammunition, a gas mask and a long-blade knife.

"He was definitely on a mission," said Bruce Bartlett, chief assistant state attorney with the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office. "He was ready to go."

But bailiffs shot him dead after he opened fire on them.

Now details are emerging about what happened Wednesday afternoon after Powell arrived at the Pinellas County Courthouse in St. Petersburg. At a news conference Thursday, authorities described the incident.

Powell walked into the courthouse lobby shortly after 1 p.m. wearing a backpack. Bailiff B.J. Lyons, 58, was at a table where arrivals typically put their briefcases, purses and computers on a conveyor belt so a scanner can check to make sure no suspicious items are inside, Pinellas County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Jim Bordner said.

While Lyons was at the table, Bailiff Marvin Glover, 57, was slightly farther away, at the side of the scanner.

Powell was told to remove his backpack and place it on the conveyor belt.

He ignored the instructions and moved toward the metal-detecting entranceway, Assistant State Attorney Bartlett said. As Powell was entering the metal detector entranceway, he drew a gun from his waistband. He was about 8 feet away from Lyons.

He turned toward the bailiff and fired twice. One of the bullets struck the radio microphone on Lyons' shoulder and deflected, but it still grazed Lyons.

Bailiffs fired 11 shots back, killing Powell. It all happened in 12 seconds.

Lyons was treated at Bayfront Medical Center and released.

Inside Powell's backpack, Pinellas sheriff's investigators found the ammunition — 61 rounds, plus 10 more in an extra magazine for his semi-automatic, Bordner said. Powell also had eight rounds left in his handgun.

The sheriff's office said it still doesn't know why Powell opened fire in a building with 70 employees and an unknown number of members of the public.

Powell's wife recently filed for divorce and was in hiding with her mother, moving from place to place for fear he would do her harm, friends and family said.

Wednesday was the last day for him to respond to her divorce action. No court documents were found in his backpack.

The family of the Eagle Scout and former Brandon High School wrestler say Powell, 30, never gave his parents reason to think he would turn violent. They didn't even know he owned a gun.

"He never gave us any indication he would do this, but I was concerned he might go to this extreme," said his mother, Virginia.

Powell's family said he was thrusting himself deeper into an underground world of people who believe government interferes too much in their lives.

For the past few years, his family said, Glen Powell was a regular visitor to freedomforceinternational.org, a Web site committed to the theory that basic freedoms are under attack and that there is a need to "defeat the collectivists who now dominate the power centers of society."

Virginia Powell said she has no idea what first prompted her son to turn to such a philosophy. He was in the Air Force at the time, doing body work on military jets.

"I really just don't know," she said. "His brother had tried to talk him out of these beliefs," but he wouldn't listen.

Bruce Adams, who employed Glen Powell on and off at his landscape and garden business, said he recalls Powell occasionally airing his views about the U.S. Constitution, but nothing he considered alarming.

"Much of his beliefs were in the right zone," Adams said. "He was just pushed way off on the deep end. I can't fathom where his head was at. I know, deep down in my heart, he did respect the law."

A member of Freedom Force International said Thursday the organization is a peaceful one that does not condone violence.

"That's not at all what the group is about," said Dirk Davidek, a San Antonio man who runs an outdoor adventure club.

The group, which doesn't hold meetings and is bound almost solely by its Web site, is concerned about what it calls the loss of personal liberty and the expansion of government power.

It's different from other Libertarian organizations that focus on education, such as writing letters to elected leaders, said Davidek, 42. Freedom Force formed to get people who share their views elected to government offices and onto the boards of nonprofit organizations, he said.

The Web site touts: "Don't fight city hall when you can BE city hall." Under a column of the group's position statements, topics include: "Are Jews and Masons and Jesuits conspiring to control the world?"; "Military plans to treat U.S. dissidents as insurgents"; and "How politicians use fear to legitimize expansion of power."

Storming a courthouse with a gun actually works against their beliefs by prompting government leaders to further restrict civil liberties, such as the right to carry weapons, Davidek said.

An autopsy Thursday was expected to determine how many times Powell was struck.

Lyons' son Bill, who works on automobile air conditioners, talked to his dad while he was at Bayfront.

"He was unbelievably calm for what he went through," Bill Lyons said of his father, who's a former marine and sometime firearms instructor. "To be honest, knowing my dad, I've never really seen him shook up over a lot of things," said Lyons, 39.

"If it weren't for him and the other deputy, a lot of people would have got hurt," he said.

WFLA reporter Rod Challenger contributed to this report. Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

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