The 33-year-old woman taken hostage by alleged Atlanta shooter Brian Nichols Saturday says she kept a cool head and earned the suspect's trust by talking to him about God and reading aloud from The Purpose Driven Life.
Ashley Smith, who was forced at gunpoint into her apartment by Nichols – the man authorities say shot and killed four people at an Atlanta courthouse on Friday – said she read from chapter 33 of the spiritual book to help keep her captor calm.
"After I read it, he said: 'Stop, Will you read it again?" The passage she repeated was "about what you thought your purpose in life was – what talents were you given," according to Smith.
"He said he thought I was an angel sent from God, and that I was his sister and he was my brother in Christ," said the young mother.
Smith, who was originally tied up by Nichols, said she humanized herself by discussing her 5-year-old daughter and telling him about how her husband was killed four years earlier.
"I told him if he hurt me, my little girl wouldn't have a mommy or daddy," said Smith, who cooked pancakes for the fugitive the next morning.
"He asked me what I thought he should do, and I said, 'I think you should turn yourself in. If you don't turn yourself in lots more people are going to get hurt.'"
Smith said she told him that it was a "miracle" he had survived the massive manhunt for him. "You need to go to prison and share the word of God with all the prisoners there," Smith said she told Nichols.
Around 9:30 a.m., Nichols allowed Smith to leave to visit her daughter. She dialed 911 and a SWAT team surrounded the building at the Bridgewater Apartments, where Nichols surrendered. He was taken into custody just after 11:20 a.m.
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