A US judge is reportedly fighting for his life after being violently attacked and shot by his son, who previously avoided jail in the same district after shooting a family friend in the head.
Judge Johnny Hardwick, president of the 15e Judicial Circuit of Montgomery County, Alabama, is said to be in critical condition after being the victim of a domestic dispute with his son Khalfani A. Hardwick on Saturday, which reportedly ended with at least one gunshot, NBC News reported Sunday.
It was early in the afternoon, around 1 p.m., that agents from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reportedly discovered the judge “attacked, shot and seriously injured” in his home, after being called to the scene for a dispute.
His 36-year-old son, who is believed to be the cause of the serious injuries suffered by the magistrate, allegedly took off in a car before the police arrived on the scene, according to the American media.
He would nevertheless have been pinned down by the officers shortly after, near the place where he abandoned his vehicle while fleeing, near Highway 231.
He was reportedly charged with first-degree domestic violence and prohibited possession of a pistol.
But the thirty-year-old would not be at his first violent run-ins with the law: ten years earlier, in 2014, he had managed to avoid prison by pleading guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree assault, after yet fatally shot a family friend, Clayton Riley, straight in the head, according to NBC News.
At that time, the judge had already been practicing in the district since 2001, noted the New YorkPost.
The magistrate, still being treated for “serious” injuries, would have undergone at least one surgery, according to what Montgomery’s assistant police chief, Wesley Richerson, told the American media.
