Biglaw Partner Gives Eyewitness Account Of Terrifying Courthouse Shooting

The gunman was killed by law enforcement, and no other serious injuries were reported.

On Monday, a heavily armed man opened fired on the Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse in Dallas, Texas. Law enforcement shot and killed the assailant, and no one else was seriously injured in the incident. The shooter was later identified as 22-year-old Army veteran Brian Isaack Clyde. Images from the incident were captured by Dallas Morning News photographer Tom Fox, who was at the courthouse to cover a trial, and posted on Twitter.

Also at the courthouse that fateful morning was Thompson & Knight partner Rich Phillips. As reported by Law.com, Phillips had a trial scheduled at 9:30 a.m., and was heading into the parking garage at 8:40 a.m. when the shooting began.

“I saw bullets hit the side of the building. I could see puffs of smoke from the stonework,” Phillips said. “Then he got to the door and started firing into the glass.”

None of it seemed real as Phillips ducked behind his dashboard. When he peeked back up moments later, the view was terrifying.

“He had turned from the door of the courthouse and crossed the street and was coming in the parking lot and was basically coming right towards me,” he explained. “For a second, I didn’t know what to do. He didn’t take but a few steps into the parking lot when he hit the pavement and dropped down. He kind of hit the ground and then rolled. I didn’t know if he had been shot and that’s why he hit the ground, or that he was trying to avoid getting shot and was going to crawl around and use the cars as a shield.”

Phillips’ fight or flight response then kicked in.

“I put the car in reverse and backed out of the driveway and took off down Wood Street. I remember feeling it took forever to get the car into gear, although I’m sure it was half a second or so. I was breathing hard and still trying to figure out what just happened,” he said.

Phillips returned to give police his statement. He then had to walk to the Thompson & Knight offices, as his car was within the established police perimeter.

Also watching the incident was paralegal Julianna Gravois, who watched the incident unfold from the window of her firm’s offices:

“I watched the whole thing,” she recalled. “It was just like 10, 15 or 20 shots, something like that, just in rapid succession. … Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.”

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An Army spokesperson confirmed Clyde served as infantryman from August 2015 to February 2017. He’d recently graduated from Del Mar College with an associate’s degree in nondestructive testing technology, and was recognized for his outstanding academic performance.

Law enforcement have not yet revealed the motive behind the attack.


headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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