Cook County shooting triggers safety questions

Posted at 9:22 AM on December 16, 2011 by Paul Tosto
Filed under: Public Safety

The county courthouse should be one of the best protected places in town and the county attorney ought to be the safest guy in the building.

That notion came crashing down Thursday in Grand Marais when Cook County Attorney Timothy Scannell was shot by a man authorities said he had prosecuted earlier in the day.

Scannell and two other shooting victims are expected to survive.

We'll know more at 11 a.m., when officials will provide details at a press conference.

Larger questions, though, persist. How secure are Minnesota's county courthouses and the people who work there, especially those outside the Twin Cities metro area? How do you meet the safety needs of judges and prosecutors without turning the county courthouse into a fortress?

We'll take a look at some of those issues today. Join in.