Relatives of suspect stunned by killings, arrest
Uncle: 'Brian is a nice young man, as far as we know'
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 Fugitive Brian Nichols is captured in suburb of Atlanta.
 A woman's 911 call led to Nichols' capture.
 Nichols caught by security camera at Atlanta parking garage.
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(CNN) -- Brian Nichols, suspected in four fatal shootings in Atlanta, Georgia, grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, where friends and neighbors described him as a respectful young man with a middle-class upbringing complete with plenty of advantages, who was popular with his peers.
"The only thing I can say is, our hearts go out to the people in Georgia," said Reginald Smalls, Nichols' uncle. "I really mean that ... Brian is a nice young man, as far as we know. I don't know what happened."
Nichols' brother, Mark, lives near Miami, Florida.
"I'm very upset," he told CNN. "We don't deserve this. The FBI came yesterday."
Mark Nichols said he has no contact with his brother, but he worried he might be evicted from his apartment.
"Everyone knows me as the brother of the person who killed those people," he said.
Police say Brian Nichols fatally shot Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, court reporter Julie Ann Brandau and sheriff's deputy Sgt. Hoyt Teasley on Friday after he stole a deputy's pistol.
He is also a suspect in the shooting death Saturday of David Wilhelm, assistant special agent in charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI said. (Full story)
Nichols' parents have been in Tanzania, where his mother, a former agent for the Internal Revenue Service, is helping set up a tax system. The couple is set to return to the United States by the end of the month, perhaps as soon as next week.
Nichols' father is retired from the restaurant business, said the attorney for the suspect's rape trial, Barry Hazen.
Before his arrest last summer, Nichols was a computer technician for UPS, Hazen said. Nichols, an athlete who played football in college, liked to played basketball with friends, the attorney said.
"By all accounts, he was a likeable guy," said Hazen, who described Nichols as intelligent and articulate.
One of Nichols' college teammates had a differing opinion.
Nick Pergine, who played football with Nichols at Kutztown University, told The Associated Press that Nichols' physical stature and martial arts skills earned him a reputation.
"He was a bad dude," Pergine told the AP. "You didn't mess with him."
Nichols spent three semesters at Kutztown before dropping out.
Hazen told CNN he never felt threatened by his client, whom he said showed him "the utmost respect."
However, his concern deepened two days before the courthouse shootings, when deputies found two metal objects believed to be weapons in Nichols' shoes.
The next day Barnes called attorneys into his chambers to tell them about the incident, and they discussed additional security.
"We actually sat together, the four of us, and talked a little bit about, generally speaking, the kind of threats that occur to officers of the court, in situations like this," Hazen said. "And the odd thing about it was, Judge Barnes actually said that he thought that the people usually most in danger were the defense attorneys."
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
