A small, tight-knit southeast Kentucky community has been reeling after their sheriff was arrested for the killing of a prominent district judge in his chambers Thursday – spurring residents to wonder what could have triggered the shooting and prompting calls for better courthouse security.

Residents of a tiny Appalachian town struggled Friday to cope with a shooting involving two of its most prominent citizens: a judge who was gunned down

After announcing he was recusing himself from the case because of his relationships with the two men, the commonwealth's attorney for Letcher County is urging people to stop spreading rumors about what may have happened in the shooting death of a judge there.