Police are investigating after a Georgia state decide was discovered useless in a courtroom on Tuesday.
The Effingham County Sheriff’s deputies mentioned in a launch that they discovered State Court docket Decide Stephen Yekel, 74, on Tuesday morning.
He seems to have died by suicide, with a self-inflicted gunshot, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned.
His loss of life is being investigated by the Effingham County Sheriff’s Workplace and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation will carry out the post-mortem.
Authorities mentioned Yekel died someday late Monday evening or early Tuesday morning.
Yekel, who was appointed to the bench two years in the past by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, misplaced his election bid earlier this 12 months.
His time period was scheduled to finish Dec. 31, 2024.
In an announcement, the Effingham County Board of Commissioners mentioned that they have been “deeply saddened” by Yekel’s loss of life.
“The Effingham County Board of Commissioners and workers are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life of Decide Steve Yekel on the Effingham County Courthouse right now, and we provide our condolences to his household and family members,” they mentioned.
Should you or somebody is affected by any of the problems raised on this story, name the Nationwide Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or textual content Disaster Textual content Line at 741741.
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