Authorities identify the man who shot himself inside an Alabama federal courthouse as 50-year-old building services director David Lee Williams of Birmingham.
Officials say he went through an employee entrance Thursday to avoid a security check that could have caught the gun.
The U.S. Marshals Service says the worker used an access card to enter the Hugo L. Black U.S. Courthouse in Birmingham. The card system is being used at times while renovation work is done on the main entrance.
A police spokesman says the worker shot himself once in the head in a first-floor clerk's office. Police say no one else in the building was threatened.
Officials say courthouse procedures are under review after the shooting.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.