A massive manhunt continued Friday afternoon in Atlanta, Ga. after a criminal defendant grabbed a deputy’s gun and opened fire in an eighth floor courtroom of the Fulton County Courthouse, killing Super Court Judge Rowland Barnes, a court reporter and a deputy sheriff.

A second deputy who was injured in the attack was in critical condition early Friday afternoon, doctors said.

“She is in critical condition but expected to survive,” said Dr. Jeffrey Salamon, a trauma surgeon at Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital

The gunman, whom authorities identified as 34-year-old Brian Nichols, was on trial in Barnes’ courtroom on a long list of charges including rape when he reportedly grabbed the weapon of the deputy assigned to the trial and held those in court hostage briefly before shooting the judge and the court reporter.

He escaped in a car stolen from a veteran Atlanta newspaper reporter, who was also injured in the incident.

"We do have deputies searching for him at this particular time. We do have other law enforcement agencies from Fulton County who are down here to assist us,” said Fulton County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Clarence Huber.

A man who works in the courthouse told reporters that officers told him a Sheriff’s Department sergeant was escorting Nichols into the courtroom when Nichols grabbed the deputy’s gun.

A woman who was near the Atlanta courthouse this morning said she didn't think anything of a man who ran by her at the time.

But now, Wanda Tamplin says, "It scares me to death."

Tamplin told Associated Press Radio she heard muffled pops this morning when she was parking in a garage near the court. Later she saw the man running.

She didn't put it together until she saw a wounded deputy.

"That could have been me,” she said.

Barnes handled the sentencing of Atlanta Thrashers player Dany Heatley, the NHL player who pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter in the death of a teammate.

Barnes drew national attention last month when he ordered a woman to have a medical procedure to prevent her from having more children.

The mother of seven had pleaded guilty to killing her five-week-old daughter.

Barnes was named to the Fulton County Superior Court bench on July 10, 1998.

He was a 1972 graduate of Emory Law School in Atlanta.