Posted on 03/08/2009 9:47:18 PM PDT by Squidpup
MARYVILLE, Ill. - A pastor shot and killed during his Sunday sermon deflected the first of the gunman's four rounds with a Bible, sending a confetti-like spray of paper into the air in a horrifying scene that congregants initially thought was a skit, police said.
The gunman strode down the aisle of the sprawling First Baptist Church shortly after 8 a.m. and briefly spoke with The Rev. Fred Winters, then pulled out a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol and began firing until it jammed, Illinois State Police Director Larry Trent said. Churchgoers wrestled the gunman to the ground as he waved a knife, slashing himself and two other people, Trent said.
None of the about 150 congregants seemed to recognize the gunman and investigators do not know details of Winters' conversation with him, but they planned to review an audio recording of the service, Trent said. The service was not videotaped.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
It's sad, but necessary. Before the lesson tonight, I encouraged the people who have a CCW license to freely carry in our church without fear. I will not allow political correctness to make us sitting ducks if a madman walks through the door.
There's no guarantee that someone won't get me first, but at least the people will be safer. More people could have died today if that gun hadn't jammed. I'd prefer that people not have to wrestle a gun or knife away from an assailant - just take him out.
His name is Terry Sedlacek, 27, according to the St Louis Post-Dispatch.
Nothing sinister unless you count having a horrible case of untreatable Lyme Disease sinister. He lived with his parents, who said he was an avid hunter and sportsman who contracted the disease in his junior year of high school. He seems to have been a great kid before he got so sick. I didn’t know that Lyme Disease medications can lead to brain lesions, but so can immunosupressant drugs given to transplant recipients. Maybe there’s a link of some kind.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/sciencemedicine/story/4C02265C2982C7458625749D0012D670/?OpenDocument
Just as an aside everyone I've ever met who had some type of brain damage was a liberal. Always wondered if there's some connection.
Perhaps because the family hadn’t been notified? Because there were privacy issues involved as the guy is still alive, and very ill to boot?
I don’t know why the people you meet with mental health issues are all liberals. The ones I’ve met have been all over the map as far as politics went - if they actually made any coherent sense about politics. But I bet you’d even find some people here at FR with political beliefs and positions that aren’t logical or completely sane.
#8: Islamic connection??
Sorry to disappoint you...
Not disappointed .... just that it’s weird reading stories where they can’t even describe the guy as witnessed by EVERYONE that saw him shoot the pastor.
What language is that? I'm thinking Yiddish, but not sure.
Never mind: found my answer in Post 9, which I’d missed before.
“I had no idea that there was a modern Jewish tradition of Damnatio Memoriae.”
Nor did I, until I tried to figure out your reference to it. Did a web search and that was what I found.
Regards,
TX Fossil
I’ve heard this discussed among our own church members. The men on our tech team are in a perfect position to help protect the church. They have cameramen facing in all directions, constantly communicate to each other by radios, and some work in the highest place in the back of balcony, which cannot be seen from below.
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