Small Alabama town stunned by murders near county courthouse - '2 lives are lost for no reason&#
By Paul Gattis | pgattis@al.com AL.com
Hamilton, AL
series /series Aka Story Package gallery-preview /gallery-preview Aka Secondary Package The motive behind a shooting that left two people dead in a tranquil north Alabama town remained a mystery Thursday, though the shooter had a history of mental illness and the sheriff openly questioned funding cuts to mental health services.
The man charged with the shooting deaths of two people Wednesday had connections with the victims.
But the investigation is ongoing, Marion County Sheriff Kevin Williams said, and no motivation has been determined.
A day after the shootings, though, the shock remained about why – according to police -- a longtime businessman in the Hamilton area would shoot to death a former business partner and an accountant of whom he was once a client.
Man committed to mental hospital shot 2 in Hamilton
The shooting reportedly happened around 11 a.m. at an office across the street from the courthouse in Hamilton.
"It's just a senseless act," said Summer Todd, the daughter of one of the victims, Linda Cole. "We don't know. I don't think we'll ever know."
Intertwined with the mystery is the fact that Jimmy Cooper, now facing two counts of capital murder, was committed to a mental facility last year and was considered dangerous. A family member signed the order to have Cooper committed in July 2015, the sheriff said.
Marion County Sheriff Kevin Williams.Paul Gattis | pgattis@al.com
"They felt like he was a danger to himself and possibly others at that time," Sheriff Williams told AL.com on Thursday.
"They were having trouble with him. Talking about suicide, talking about different things, hurting himself, possibly hurting others at that moment in time."
According to law enforcement, Cooper shot and killed Donny Miller at the law firm of Scott Hunt, which sits across the street from the Marion County Courthouse – which houses the sheriff's department.
Cooper then proceeded down a revitalized First Street – a signature piece of small-town Americana with refurbished sidewalks that includes boutiques, a coffee shop and a barber shop – three blocks to Cole's accounting firm.
A leisurely stroll between the crimes scenes takes 3½ minutes. Along the way, Cooper passed 15 businesses as well as the courthouse to reach Cole's office. And at the end of First Street, less than 100 yards from Cole's office, is Hamilton High School.
"He wasn't crazy," said April Cagle, another of Cole's daughters, as she dabbed tears from her eyes. "We don't know that. We're not doctors. But he knew what he was doing. He came in on a mission and he did what he came to do. That don't make him crazy."
Williams said Cooper and Miller had an insulation business together in the Hamilton-area that fell on hard times around 2013 or 2014. The business either failed or filed for bankruptcy, he said. A check of court records did not immediately reveal a bankruptcy filing.
The sheriff also described Cooper as a "respected businessman for several years" in Hamilton with no criminal record.
Cooper was taken into custody at First State Bank, which is located behind Cole's accounting firm, after a shootout with sheriff deputies. Cooper sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to UAB Hospital.
He came in on a mission and he did what he came to do. That don't make him crazy.
A private citizen in the area assisted deputies in apprehending Cooper, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.
"Why (Cooper) did what he did, we don't know that yet," Williams said. "We have speculation, we have rumors. But we're still checking on it."
While perhaps the dots are easy to connect between Cooper and Miller – the former business partner – it's less clear with Cole.
Williams said Thursday morning "there's probably a connection there" between Cooper and Cole. Cole's daughters, however, said their professional relationship had long ended.
"My mother had not seen, talked or dealt with Jimmy Cooper in probably 15 years," Cagle said. "I worked side-by-side with my mom for over 19 years and she has had no dealings with him. He left as her client back then and she's had no contact with him."
While the sheriff's department investigates the shootings and the State Bureau of Investigation reviews the use of firearms by the deputies in the incident, Williams focuses on the question of Cooper's mental health.
He spoke strongly about the need for more mental health facilities and funding in a news conference Wednesday – so strongly, he said Thursday, "I may have offended some people, I don't know.
"But I live in it every day, I see it every day. You ask any sheriff in the state of Alabama. You deal with it every day. The point's got to be made. I don't know where the stopping point is going to be."
While Williams' deputies transported Cooper to the Behavioral Medicine Unit at Walker Baptist Medical Center in Jasper in July 2015, the sheriff said he has no knowledge of what happened after that.
Until Wednesday, when police said that seven months after being committed to the mental health facility, Cooper had a gun and killed two people.
In fact, Williams said his deputies transported two people to Jasper with commitment orders on Wednesday.
He minced no words on the issue Thursday.
"As one sheriff in the state of Alabama, mental health has taken a lot of cuts," he said. "State funding is way down. What we're having and what we're seeing is more and more sheriffs and more and more county jails are housing these individuals. I have five in my jail today. And what I'm trying to say is we have nowhere to put these people.
"A lot of these people don't need to be in county jails. They need to be in hospitals. With all the major cuts that have been going on the last few years, they have no place to put them."
Even the system currently in place doesn't adequately address mental health issues, Williams said.
"Mental health needs help," he said. "Mental health needs money, they need funding, they need some place to put them. That's my point. When they treat people for mental illnesses of any kind, they put them on medication and get them regulated and they turn them loose. There's no checks and balances on the system after being released. And they come back to our communities and they commit some kind of crime or something. Our facilities are not to keep these individuals and we're not trained medically to keep these individuals.
"That's what I'm mad about, I'll be honest with you. And a lot of sheriffs are because a lot of sheriffs are getting the burden of housing these individuals."
Regardless of the circumstances, Wednesday's shootings shattered the peace in a tranquil town – save for the relentless rumbling of trucks passing through Hamilton between U.S. Highway 278 and Interstate 22.
"It's just horrible what happened," said Sherry Herrod, who works in Leonelli's Coffee Buzz on First Street. "I'm sad and hurt for all the families involved. People lost a lot in every different way. We all feel like we lost somebody."
Sarah Miller, no relation to Donny Miller, works alongside Herrod in the coffee shop.
"It was mass chaos," she said. "(Police) told us to lock the doors. There were sirens everywhere."
Miller said she was friends with Cooper's two children.
"It was a shock, to say the least," she said.
The law firm where Donny Miller worked was locked on Thursday and no one answered a knock on the door, which was adorned with a white bow.
Outside Cole's office, her daughters said they did not want to talk about the shootings. Instead, they wanted to share what their mother meant to the community.
"We want everyone to know that our mother was a wonderful, Christian lady," Cagle said. "She always had a smile on her face. She loved God, she loved her grandbabies, she loved her family, her friends, clients.
"You were never just a client. Never."
Indeed, the daughters recalled one Thanksgiving when a client called Cole to ask if she knew a good refrigerator salesman. Such interruptions at family holiday dinners were not uncommon.
"She never complained about it," Todd said. "It was her livelihood and she really loved it.
"She was a very smart lady, very strong. Just a role model for everybody. And everybody loved her – everybody. You never saw her not smiling, just a bright, beautiful smile wherever she went. She gave herself to everybody. When you met her, she gave herself to you."
For the sheriff, when he said "everybody knows everybody," he wasn't repeated a cliché.
"This is not Mayberry by no means but we're small and we grow up together," he said. "You know the kids, you know the grandparents, you know everybody."
And Williams said he knew Cole, Miller and Cooper. Cole did his taxes for several years and was "well-liked" in Hamilton. Miller was a neighbor, a volunteer firefighter in Hackleburg and a "well-respected, well-liked man."
"And that's what's tragic about it," he said. "Two lives are lost for no reason."