{
  "id": "2018-02-09-augusta-university-health-nursing-home-lockdown",
  "slug": "augusta-university-health-nursing-home-lockdown-2018-02-09",
  "institution": {
    "name": "Augusta University",
    "shortName": "AU",
    "state": "GA",
    "type": "public-r2",
    "alertSystemName": "AU Alert"
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2018-02-09",
    "type": "shooting",
    "cleryCategory": "emergency-notification",
    "headline": "Employee fatally shot by her spouse in a nursing home parking lot; campuses locked down",
    "headlinePublic": "Employee fatally shot by her spouse in a nursing home parking lot; campuses locked down",
    "summary": "On the morning of February 9, 2018, shortly before 11:30 AM EST, Richard Timmons Jr. fatally shot his wife, a 34-year-old nursing home employee, in the parking lot of the [Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coroner-1-dead-after-shooting-at-georgia-war-veterans-nursing-home/) at 1101 15th Street, a facility under the Augusta University Health umbrella on the main AU Health campus. Augusta University and nearby [Paine College both went on lockdown](https://www.wrdw.com/content/news/Active-Shooter--473586683.html) when the call came in as an active-shooter report. The all-clear was issued at approximately 12:20 PM EST after police determined the attack was a targeted domestic-violence shooting and the suspect had fled.",
    "outcome": "The victim was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:30 AM EST on February 9, 2018. Richard Timmons Jr. fled to Texas, where he was apprehended with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison on May 16, 2019. No other injuries occurred.",
    "resolution": "confirmed-threat",
    "casualties": {
      "killed": 1,
      "injured": 0
    }
  },
  "alerts": [
    {
      "sequence": 1,
      "type": "initial",
      "timestamp": "2018-02-09T11:37:00-05:00",
      "channel": "phone-call",
      "verbatimText": "An active shooter event occurred at GA War Veteran the suspect is still out please stay away from the area and shelter yourselves this time",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.wfxg.com/augusta-university-mistakenly-sends-out-active-shooter-alert/article_ef7b5b51-cc69-50c7-8b22-a94c5cd4f628.html",
      "sourceDescription": "WFXG and WRDW quoting verbatim the Augusta University voice/phone alert sent at 11:37 AM EST on February 9, 2018",
      "annotations": [
        "Verbatim recovery: this phone/voice alert is reproduced word-for-word, with its grammatical errors preserved, by two independent Augusta-market outlets (WFXG and WRDW); the broken phrasing ('the suspect is still out', 'shelter yourselves this time') is a strong authenticity marker of a rapidly composed AU Alert voice message.",
        "The alert went out at 11:37 AM EST, about 14 minutes after the 11:23 AM EST call to AU police and roughly 7 minutes after the victim was pronounced dead at the scene; AU later acknowledged the 'active shooter' framing was an over-broad classification of a targeted domestic-violence shooting.",
        "Augusta University and neighboring Paine College both went on lockdown when this active-shooter alert was issued."
      ],
      "characterCount": 139
    },
    {
      "sequence": 2,
      "type": "update",
      "timestamp": "2018-02-09T12:05:00-05:00",
      "channel": "email",
      "verbatimText": "There has been a shooting at the Ga War Nursing Home. It appears this was a domestic violence targeted attack. Multiple police agencies are responding. We are no longer treating this as an active shooter incident.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.wjbf.com/news/local-schools-put-on-lockdown-during-active-shooter-situation-in-augusta/",
      "sourceDescription": "WJBF (NewsChannel 6) quoting the verbatim Augusta University Health notification sent at approximately 12:05 PM EST on February 9, 2018",
      "annotations": [
        "The notification went out at approximately 12:05 PM EST, about 28 minutes after the 11:37 AM EST 'active shooter' voice alert, reflecting the time needed to establish that the shooter had fled and the attack was targeted.",
        "AU Health characterized the incident as 'domestic violence' and 'targeted' in this update, a framing choice that signals to recipients that a campus-wide active-shooter response is not required.",
        "The notification explicitly de-escalated ('We are no longer treating this as an active shooter incident') quoted verbatim by WJBF, a rare instance of an alert documenting the moment a campus reclassifies an active-shooter report as a targeted domestic-violence crime."
      ],
      "characterCount": 213
    },
    {
      "sequence": 3,
      "type": "all-clear",
      "timestamp": "2018-02-09T12:20:00-05:00",
      "channel": "email",
      "verbatimText": "",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": false,
      "sourceDescription": "Reconstructed from WJBF reporting that an all-clear email went out at approximately 12:20 PM EST with the quoted language about no ongoing threat from the suspect",
      "annotations": []
    }
  ],
  "context": "Augusta University Health is the academic medical system of Augusta University (formerly Georgia Health Sciences University), Georgia's only public academic health center. The Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home at 1101 15th Street NW, Augusta, is operated under the AU Health umbrella on the main AU Health campus, placing it within the institution's Clery geography. [The AJC reported](https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/breaking-dead-shooting-veterans-nursing-home-augusta/vwOFWmHJTfYCx9FbKyvj4L/) that Richard Lyle Timmons Jr. shot his wife, a nursing home employee, in the parking lot on the morning of February 9, 2018. The call came in as an active-shooter report. [WJBF reported](https://www.wjbf.com/news/local-schools-put-on-lockdown-during-active-shooter-situation-in-augusta/) that Augusta University and Paine College both issued lockdown alerts and that the AU notification at about 12:05 PM EST characterized the incident as a targeted domestic violence attack. The all-clear went out at approximately 12:20 PM EST, with no evidence the suspect remained in the area. Timmons fled to Texas, where [the U.S. Marshals Service helped apprehend him](https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/breaking-man-accused-shooting-wife-georgia-nursing-home-captured-texas/gGANyDzH4eUy4o0pjb7DwJ/). [The AU Bell Ringer student newspaper reported](https://www.aubellringer.com/the-bell-ringer-1/2019/05/30/man-who-murdered-wife-outside-georgia-war-veterans-nursing-home-receives-life-sentence) that Timmons was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in May 2019.",
  "keyFindings": [
    "A parking-lot femicide in an AU Health-affiliated nursing home triggered lockdowns at an academic medical center and a neighboring HBCU (Paine College), illustrating how a domestic-violence incident at one campus building can cascade across an urban academic district",
    "AU's first alert at 11:37 AM EST on February 9, 2018 was an 'active shooter' voice message ('the suspect is still out...shelter yourselves'); about 28 minutes later a follow-up reclassified the incident as a targeted domestic-violence attack, a documented over-broad-then-corrected notification sequence",
    "The all-clear was issued at approximately 12:20 PM EST, about 43 minutes after the initial alert and 15 minutes after the reclassification update, once the suspect's departure from campus was established",
    "The suspect fled to Texas and was not apprehended until after the lockdown was lifted, meaning the all-clear was issued while the suspect remained at large"
  ],
  "responseTimeMinutes": 14,
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Local schools put on lockdown during active shooter situation in Augusta",
      "url": "https://www.wjbf.com/news/local-schools-put-on-lockdown-during-active-shooter-situation-in-augusta/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Coroner: 1 dead after shooting at Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home",
      "url": "https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coroner-1-dead-after-shooting-at-georgia-war-veterans-nursing-home/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Woman fatally shot at veterans nursing home in Augusta",
      "url": "https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/breaking-dead-shooting-veterans-nursing-home-augusta/vwOFWmHJTfYCx9FbKyvj4L/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Man accused of shooting wife at Georgia nursing home captured in Texas",
      "url": "https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/breaking-man-accused-shooting-wife-georgia-nursing-home-captured-texas/gGANyDzH4eUy4o0pjb7DwJ/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Man who murdered wife outside Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home receives life sentence",
      "url": "https://www.aubellringer.com/the-bell-ringer-1/2019/05/30/man-who-murdered-wife-outside-georgia-war-veterans-nursing-home-receives-life-sentence",
      "type": "student-newspaper"
    },
    {
      "title": "WFXG and WRDW quoting verbatim the Augusta University voice/phone alert sent at 11:37 AM EST on February 9, 2018",
      "url": "https://www.wfxg.com/augusta-university-mistakenly-sends-out-active-shooter-alert/article_ef7b5b51-cc69-50c7-8b22-a94c5cd4f628.html",
      "type": "other"
    }
  ],
  "confidence": "medium",
  "tags": [
    "shooting",
    "domestic-violence",
    "hospital",
    "academic-health-center",
    "georgia",
    "augusta",
    "nursing-home",
    "lockdown",
    "femicide",
    "emergency-notification"
  ],
  "dateAdded": "2026-05-31",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-07-16",
  "addedBy": "ingestion"
}