The judge who set bail for a man who fatally shot his estranged wife in the parking lot of their children’s school, days after he was released from jail, says he feels horrible about what happened but that he made the best decision he could at the time.

“I just felt terrible,” said Judge John Fairgrieve, recalling when he learned of the shooting last week. He quickly rubbed his eyes as tears welled up — one tear spilling onto his left cheek.

In an interview Friday with The Columbian, from his office in the Clark County Courthouse, Fairgrieve talked generally about what factors go into determining bail, and why domestic violence cases are particularly tough to decide.

“It’s very difficult to predict what’s going to happen,” he said, and it’s hard to know someone’s motives when they violate a no-contact order — “if the nature is to inflict violence or continue forward with the relationship.”

On Nov. 26, Vancouver’s Keland Hill shot his wife, 35-year-old Tiffany Hill, and her mother, while they sat in a parked minivan at Sarah J. Anderson Elementary School in Hazel Dell. Three children were inside the vehicle but were physically unhurt.