Excerpt: 'Unlikely Angel' by Ashley Smith
Sept. 28, 2005 — -- On March 12, 2005, Ashley Smith, a single mother, persuaded Brian Nichols, the alleged Atlanta courtroom gunman, to surrender to police. Smith was returning from a late-night cigarette run when Nichols forced his way into her apartment. He held her hostage for seven hours, as she fought for her life.
Nichols, who had been accused of binding and then repeatedly raping his girlfriend over the course of three days, allegedly went on a violent rampage at the courthouse. He allegedly stole a deputy's gun while in a holding cell and then shot the judge and court reporter. As he fled the scene, Nichols is accused of accosting a reporter, then shooting and killing a customs agent when trying to carjack him.
Smith succeeded in convincing Nichols to turn himself in. She explained to him she was a widow with a young daughter. She also provided him with crystal methamphetamine, but refused to do any herself because she didn't want to die having done drugs that day.
Below is an excerpt from Smith's new book, "Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero."
Friday, March 11, 2005
At 9:45 p.m. my cell phone rang. I looked down at my callerID--it was my step-dad calling from Augusta again. What could hewant this time?
"What are you doing?" he asked.
I was exhausted, almost too tired to answer. I held the phoneagainst my ear with my shoulder so I could carry a load of trash outof my second-floor apartment down to my car. I had been moving fortwo days. My new place was a smaller, bottom-level apartment on theother side of the complex. I didn't have much left to do here--justsome vacuuming and painting to return the place to its original condition.But I wasn't doing any of that tonight. I needed sleep. I wasdriving to Dacula in the morning to see Paige.
"I'm moving the rest of my stuff," I said, trying to get down thestairs. Just please let me get off this phone.
"You're out? There's a man on the loose and you're out? Haven'tyou been watching the news like I told you?"
This was the second time my step-dad had called me aboutthe guy on the news. The first time was late this morning when hewoke me up calling. He kept talking about a man and shootings atthe courthouse, and he told me to stay inside. I'd been up all nightunpacking boxes, and I just didn't understand his concern. I mean, Ilived in Duluth, maybe half an hour northeast of downtown Atlanta.
"Thanks, but I'm not too worried about it," I had told him.
I learned a little more about the story when I went to work later inthe day. I'd just started a second job at Barnacle's, a restaurant maybefive minutes from my apartment complex. The news was playing onthe TV screens when I got there, and I caught the basics: A man hadkilled some people at the Fulton County Courthouse and now he wason the run. My coworkers were talking about it a lot, but I didn't paytoo much attention. Being from Augusta, I was used to hearing aboutviolent crime in Atlanta. And I had a lot on my mind with the moveanyway.
"Look," I said to my step-dad now as I shut my car door andheaded back up to the apartment, "this guy's not going to come afterme. I mean, he could be anywhere."
I thought back to the five police officers who had come into Barnacle'sfor dinner. I was training to work the door, and as the menwere walking out, I heard someone ask them, "Hey, have y'all caughtthat guy yet?"
"Oh, don't you worry about him," one officer said. "He's probablyin Alabama by now."
I tried to reassure my step-dad: "You know, an officer who cameinto the restaurant said the guy's probably in Alabama, so I'll be fine.I've just gotten off work, and I have a few more things to get out ofhere. Then I'm done. I'll be on my way to the other apartment in a fewminutes. I promise."
