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.

Letcher County Sheriff Shawn M. Stines, 43 - a man whose role made him responsible for judges’ personal security - gunned down District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, at the Letcher County courthouse in Whitesburg, according to Kentucky State Police.

Stines turned himself in after the shooting and was arrested at the scene without incident, authorities said. He is now facing a first-degree murder charge, state police said.

The killing sent shockwaves through the tiny town of Whitesburg – with a population of 1,711 people.

“This community is small in nature, and we’re all shook,” Kentucky State Police Trooper Matt Gayheart said at a Thursday evening news conference.

It all happened after an argument between the two men inside the judge’s chambers on Thursday afternoon, a preliminary investigation revealed.

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The court was left without its district judge of 15 years after Mullins was found with multiple gunshot wounds and pronounced dead, Kentucky State Police said.

Letcher County was also left without its sheriff of eight years after Stines was arrested at the courthouse on Thursday, and it’s unclear who will take his place, authorities said. He is being jailed in Leslie County and his first court appearance is scheduled for September 25 before a judge in Carter County, said Jackie Steele, the Commonwealth’s Attorney assigned to the case. CNN is trying to determine whether Stines has an attorney.

As residents wait for details about the argument that led up to the shots, the motive remains under investigation, Gayheart said, adding the incident was “isolated.” But this is the first time a tragedy “of this magnitude” has afflicted the county, he said.

Ben Gish, the editor of Mountain Eagle, a local weekly newspaper, told CNN “none of us could imagine anything like this happening in this day and time.”

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Circuit Clerk Mike Watts said Mullins and Stines had lunch on the day of the shooting.

“The judge and Sheriff had ate lunch together … I saw them earlier,” Watts said in an interview with CNN affiliate WKYT.

“Our community has suffered an act of violence that appears to be between two men that I have worked with for seventeen years and loved like brothers,” Butler said.

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Earlier this week, Stines was deposed in an ongoing federal lawsuit involving a former deputy who coerced a woman to have sex with him in Mullins’ chambers in 2021.

Sabrina Adkins and Jennifer Hill filed the suit against Stines and deputy Ben Fields in 2022, claiming the deputy said he would keep Adkins out of jail and on home release, while avoiding paying the fees associated with an ankle monitor, in exchange for sex.

Fields was charged with multiple felonies and a misdemeanor – including rape and tampering with a monitoring device – and was given a suspended jail sentence as part of a plea deal earlier this year, according to the Mountain Eagle newspaper.

Hill has since died and criminal charges against Fields related to her were dropped, but her estate is continuing to pursue the lawsuit against Field and Stines, court records show.

The lawsuit alleges the sexual allegations against Fields “were not appropriately investigated by Sheriff Stines.”

Stines fired Fields in 2022, after the lawsuit was filed, for “conduct unbecoming,” according to a disciplinary letter obtained by the Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper.