WHITESBURG, Ky. – A judge in a rural Kentucky county was shot dead in the local courthouse on Thursday, and the local sheriff has been charged with the shocking murder, police said.

The governor said the judge was shot in his office. The preliminary investigation indicates the sheriff shot Mullins after an argument in the courthouse, police said.

District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, was hit multiple times in the shooting, Kentucky State Police said. The judge was pronounced dead at the scene.

Letcher County Sheriff Shawn M. Stines, 43, was arrested at the scene without incident, police said, and charged with first-degree murder.

The investigation is ongoing, police said.

In a social media post, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear responded to the shooting: “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 will work with a prosecutor in the region as a special prosecutor in the case.

“We will fully investigate this matter and seek justice,” Coleman said on social media.

The shooting occurred at the Letcher County Courthouse in Whitesburg, an Appalachian town in southeastern Kentucky, 235 kilometers southeast of Lexington, Kentucky.

The shooting is being investigated by Kentucky State Police. Trooper Matt Gayheart called it an isolated incident and said there was no threat to the public. However, he did not provide any details about the shooting.

Mullins served as a district judge in Kentucky’s 47th District Court in Letcher County since his appointment by former Governor Steve Beshear in 2009 and election 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.

Several schools in the area were briefly locked down, including Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College and Letcher County Schools, according to media reports.