Gunman May Have Targeted Prosecutors

The killer who stepped off a courthouse elevator shooting and throwing homemade bombs may have gotten off at the wrong floor and missed his intended victims, including federal prosecutors, authorities said Friday.

Jack McKnight, 37, was killed Thursday when a pipe bomb he was holding exploded in the fourth-floor clerk’s office of U.S. District Court. He killed a court security officer and injured five other people during the assault.

Officials speculated that McKnight, who was to be sentenced on drug and weapons charges Thursday, meant to get off at the third floor, where the U.S. attorney’s office is located.

“His target was the judicial or prosecution system,” FBI agent Don Pettus said.

Pettus said authorities also believe that McKnight accidentally detonated the pipe bomb that took his life, although he probably would have killed himself eventually. “The way he was shooting around, throwing bombs around, no doubt, he wanted to commit suicide, but we believe he still had more targets,” Pettus said.

He said McKnight apparently killed his three pets--two dogs and a cat--at his Meriden home that morning.

U.S. Atty. Jack Williams said McKnight may have been gunning for U.S. District Judge Sam Crow, who was to have sentenced him, and other federal officials.

“I don’t think he meant to go to the clerk’s office,” Williams said. “I think he probably was looking for the marshal’s office, Judge Crow’s office or the U.S. attorney’s office.”

Williams said one clerk quoted McKnight as telling a woman at the office: “You’re not who I’m looking for.”

McKnight pleaded guilty in May to one count of possession of marijuana with intent to sell and illegal use of a firearm during drug trafficking. He could have been sentenced to up to 40 years in prison and fined $2 million.

McKnight’s wife, Cynthia McKnight, was to have been sentenced on weapons charges Friday, but Williams said her sentencing had been delayed indefinitely.

The courthouse was closed Friday, and officials said they did not know if it would be cleaned up in time to reopen Monday.