A judge in a rural Kentucky county was shot dead in his courtroom on Thursday and the local sheriff was charged with murder, police said.

The preliminary investigation indicates that Letcher County Sheriff Shawn M. Stines shot District Judge Kevin Mullins multiple times after an argument at the courthouse, according to Kentucky State Police. Mullins, 54, was shot multiple times and died at the scene. Stines, 43, turned himself in without incident, officials said, and has been charged with one count of first-degree murder. The investigation is ongoing, police said.

Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Laurance B. VanMeter said he was “shocked by this act of violence” and the court system was “shaken by this news.”

The Letcher County Courthouse in Whitesburg, 146 miles southeast of Lexington near the Virginia border, was closed for Friday.

In response to the shooting, Governor Andy Beshear said in a social media post: “There is far too much violence in this world and I pray there is a path to a better future.”

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said his office would work with a prosecutor in the region as a special prosecutor in the criminal case.

“We will conduct a full investigation and seek justice,” Coleman said on social media.

Mullins was appointed district judge in Letcher County by former Governor Steve Beshear in 2009 and elected the following year.

Mullins was known for promoting substance abuse treatment for people involved with the justice system, helping hundreds of residents get residential treatment, according to a program for a drug summit he spoke at in 2022. He also helped develop a program called Addiction Recovery Care, which provides peer support services in the courthouse. The program has been implemented in at least 50 counties in Kentucky.

Mullins was also a founding member of the Responsive Effort to Support Treatment in Opioid Recovery Efforts leadership team.

Schreiner writes for the Associated Press.