Posted on 07/27/2008 12:27:38 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
How often do you bring a gun to church?
If it were legal I would.
I’m a big believer of carrying everywhere. I don’t know, seems weird to me to carry a gun to church. Something doesn’t set right.
Police: 1 dead, 8 hurt in church shooting; suspect in custody
Gunfire erupted during play at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church By Don Jacobs , Amy McRary , Frank Munger , J.J. Stambaugh
Originally published 11:01 a.m., July 27, 2008
Updated 04:08 p.m., July 27, 2008
Shooting at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church Several people were shot with a gunman opened fire at the church around 10:18 a.m., Sunday.
A gunman opened fire at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church this morning, shooting eight people with a shotgun, killing one, according to Knoxville Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV.
Seven of the wounded were taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, according to spokeswoman Becky Thompson.
Five remain in critical condition this afternoon; one is listed as serious. Another was treated and released.
All were adults: four women and three men.
Another victim was trampled and was treated and released at a hospital, Owen said during a press conference this afternoon.
Church member Greg McKendry, 60, was shot and killed when he confronted the gunman during a children’s presentation of the musical, “Annie Jr!”
“He was the first person he encountered,” according to Owen.
“Greg McKendry stood in the front of the gunman and took the blast to protect the rest of us,” witness Barbara Kemper said.
“Make sure everyone knows that Greg McKendry was a hero, a total hero,” Taylor Bessette said of the man who has been his foster father just a few months.
The gunman was described as having no connection to the church and was taken into custody within minutes of the shooting, according to Owen, and no motive was immediately available.
The church is located at 2931 Kingston Pike just west of the University of Tennessee.
Police dispatchers received a report of the shooting at 10:18 a.m. and took a man into custody at 10:22 a.m.
The shooter, described as a white man with long blond hair, in his 40s, with a thin build, about 6 feet tall, was wearing jeans and a bloody T-shirt, according to church member Steve Drevik, 41.
He was carrying a 12-gauge shotgun and had a fanny pack with extra ammunition.
“He will be charged shortly,” Owen said.
The FBI is assisting in the investigation, Owen said.
He declined to release the suspect’s name but said he currently lives in the Knoxville area.
Asked about the children who were performing, Owen said the shooting was “in sight of them and all the people shot were in the line of fire.”
McKendry’s foster son Taylor was a member of the cast, getting ready to take the stage and said the shooter was carrying a guitar case.
Church member John Bohstedt said in addition to the guitar case, the gunman carried a smaller case that could have been a photo bag. Bohstedt said the man took a shotgun out, walked to the back door on the right back corner of the sanctuary and took two shots,
Kemper said the gunman walked into the side of the sanctuary after firing one shot from a hallway.
She said the gunman was yelling “hateful things” and was wearing a red, white and blue T-shirt.
“He looked like bad guy.” Kemper said.
The gunman was shooting indiscriminately, Kemper said. She said at least four shotgun blasts were fired on the Second Presbyterian side of the church.
She said church members who were in the play, Bohstedt and Terry Uselton, jumped on the gunman and restrained him.
Members began telling McKendry to take a breath.
Kemper tried to comfort a little boy whose mother had been shot in the head. She said there was a handprint of blood on the back of the boys’s shirt.
Religious Education Director Brian Griffin stepped forward and oversaw efforts to calm the crowd and talk to authorities, witness Ted Lollis said.
“Everybody is shocked,” Lollis said, but “there was a lot of heroics.”
After the shooting and after the gunman was restrained, all the members of the church left out the doors behind the front of the sanctuary.
Drevik said he saw three men and two women with gunshot wounds, described as shotgun pellets to the scalp.
The suspect was taken to KPD’s headquarters on the third floor of the Safety Building downtown where he is being interviewed, according to Owen.
“The church was full,” police Lt. Jerry Armstrong said, although he could not estimate how many people were in the church.
The musical was a culmination of a summer theater workshop conducted by the Church Music Director, Vicki Masters.
According to Lollis, congregants were expecting the unexpected in the inter-generational service because it was a children’s performance.
Masters reportedly turned around with a look of horror on her face and started running towards the sounds.
Everyone was “wrapped up listening to these kids because they were doing a great job,” said witness Sheila Bowen, a retired nurse who delivered babies.
She said she heard six or seven shots.
“Oh my God, they were so loud,” she said.
At first she said she thought the loud noises might have been part of the play.
She said she heard a man say “get out, get out of here.”
She did not see the suspect because “he was on the ground and a really strong hefty guy had him pinned down.”
Leigh Ann Dickert, who lives next door to the church, said when she first heard the shots, she thought the church was having some kind of race and the screams were cheers.
When the cheering went on too long she said she realized they were screams. She looked out her window and saw people running through the parking lot.
Dickert said she went up to one of the parishioners who told her that a man came into the church with a shotgun concealed in a guitar case.
The man apparently walked up to another man in the back of the church, shot him “point blank, right there” and then opened fire on the crowd, she said.
The man was tackled when he paused to reload.
By early afternoon, about five police chaplains were on the scene, the Knoxville chapter of the American Red Cross was providing water, and witnesses continued to be questioned inside the church building.
Members who were not witnesses were being permitted to leave the grounds.
“The Red Cross is … providing counseling and meals to all the personnel that are there, congregation and emergency service workers,” Knoxville Fire Department Capt. Brent Seymour said. KFD provides first-responder emergency services and sent three vehicles to the scene immediately. An on-call EMS worker was on the nearby Cumberland Avenue Strip, heard the call and went to the church as well, Seymour said.
The Red Cross is “bringing in mental health workers for anyone who wishes to talk.”
Shortly after 1 p.m., members of the Red Cross walked into the church with their arms filled with teddy bears. Bears are often used to comfort children.
The church’s minister, the Rev. Chris Buice, was on vacation in Asheville, N.C., and drove immediately back when he was notified of the shooting.
“Greg McKendry — we loved him,” Buice said, his eyes filling with tears at the afternoon press conference.
“We loved Greg McKendry, please pray for this congregation because we are grieving the loss of a wonderful man.”
In a statement, Mayor Bill Haslam said, “Today Knoxville suffered a tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and the church community,” Mayor Bill Haslam said in a statement.
A special meeting has been called at 6 p.m. Westside Unitarian Universalist Church, 616 Fretz Road in Farragut, to update members of the church on the events and “help us deal with this tragedy,” according to a church e-mail.
In an e-mail Bohstedt stated. “As far as we know, this has nothing to do with the church. the production, personal conflicts or anything else. Please, let’s not speculate.” He asked, “Let us all pray for the victims, including the children that were traumatized by this terrible event. Church leaders did a fine job of helping people come together. Blessings on us all- a very tragic day for our blessed community.”
Carrie Niceley, 19, of Knoxville said she heard about the shooting when it was announced at her church, First Presbyterian.
She came to the church with a bouquet of flower picked from the First Presbyterian sanctuary.
“We think a church should be more of a place for love,” she said when asked about the shooting.
She said she knows members of the church and wants everyone to “they’re in our thoughts and prayers.”
Jefferson didn't write a Bible. He edited the KJV by deleting portions he felt he couln't agree. Mainly he took out the miracles. He just couldn't grasp a God of creation, a God of time and space, a God whose mysteries have always befuddled mankind.. He was a active member of an Episcopal church all his life. Apparently he found far more in which he agreed than disagreed. - Neither considered themselves UU.
The people that go to these churches are like Oprah. All paths lead.... They are all leftists who cannot see black and white, they have been blinded. No way a gun would be found anywhere near any of them. Too bad, perhaps some of the damage could have been stopped earlier.
I presume none of the “parishioners” had a gun.How often do you bring a gun to church?
It happens more often than you'd thing. But, given the political proclivities of the UUA, it is unlikely any of these would be armed. Unitarian Universalist Association website on gun control
George Washington is open to debate some sources say yes sme say no. Deism was prevailent during the early years of our nation even amongst some of the more well known founders. Not saying I agree with that belief. I don’t.
I don't, but I know some of the members do. And frankly, I would expect some of them to respond more quickly than the cops on the premises.
John Adams was a Unitarian
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