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The Rev. Al Meredith was more than 700 miles away when a gunman walked into a Maryville church and gunned down its preacher in front of his horrified congregation. But the tragedy hit the Texas preacher hard, and he's coming to help. A decade ago, another gunman fired a hail of bullets and tossed a pipe bomb down the aisle at Meredith's church in Fort Worth, killing seven people and wounding seven others, then calmly sat in a back pew and shot himself in the head. On Sunday, services are scheduled to resume at First Baptist Church in this...

MARYVILLE, Ill. (AP) — The widow of a pastor killed in mid-sermon urged mourners to reject hate and to take comfort in their faith at his funeral Friday, in the church where he was gunned down five days earlier. "On Sunday, my husband didn't die. He simply got a promotion," Cindy Winters said. She raised a hand to the sky as the "Movin' on Up" theme from "The Jeffersons" blared from the loudspeakers and the standing-room-only crowd rose to its feet at First Baptist Church in this St. Louis suburb. Fred Winters was eulogized as a coupon-clipping brainiac who never...

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...

Church shooting suspect has mental illness from Lyme disease By Joel Currier, Jeremy Kohler and Nicholas J.C. Pistor ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 03/09/2009 MARYVILLE — A man suspected of killing the Rev. Fred Winters during a church service in Maryville on Sunday morning had developed mental illness from a tick bite, his family has said. Police did not release the name of the suspect, who was seriously injured in a struggle with members of the congregation after the shooting of Winters at the First Baptist Church. But a source close to the case confirmed late Sunday that it is Terry Joe...

A shooting during a morning church service outside St. Louis has left one person dead -- the church's pastor -- and several others wounded, officials said. The Rev. Fred Winters was at the pulpit at the First Baptist Church in Maryville, Ill., at 8:15 a.m. local time today when a man wearing dark clothing approached the pulpit and fired four shots, the first of which hit the pastor's Bible, Illinois State Police Director Larry Trent said at a news conference late today. One of the shots from the gunman's .45 caliber pistol hit Winters in the chest, killing him, before...

MARYVILLE, Ill. – Illinois state police say a man has shot a pastor to death and injured others at an church during a service in the community of Maryville. Illinois Master Trooper Ralph Timmins says the man walked down the aisle during the early Sunday service at First Baptist Church in Maryville. He said the man exchanged words with pastor Fred Winters and then pulled out a .45-caliber handgun. Timmins said the man fatally shot Winters once before the gun jammed, then pulled out a knife and wounded himself. Churchgoers tried to subdue the attacker and two of them suffered...

A shooting during a morning church service outside St. Louis has left at least one person dead -- the church's pastor -- and several others wounded, officials said. The Rev. Fred Winters was at the pulpit at the First Baptist Church in Maryville, Ill. at 8:15 a.m. local time when a man "walked down the aisle of the church," approached the pulpit and shot Winters in the chest with a .45 caliber handgun, said Trooper Ralph Timmins of the Illinois State Police, which is handling the investigation. The gun jammed, and the shooter then injured himself with a knife and...

(CNN) -- Five people, including a church pastor, were shot inside the First Baptist Church of Maryville, Illinois, a police dispatcher told CNN on Sunday. The shooting occurred during a church service, the dispatcher said. The suspect was stabbed by parishioners who wrestled him to the ground.

A Message About Today’s Loss Today, a little after our 8:15 service began, a man entered First Baptist Church and fired several gunshots at our Senior Pastor, Dr. Fred Winters. Pastor Winters was taken to the hospital but died of his wounds. Please pray for Dr. Winter’s family, our two brave members who were injured when they stopped the assailant, for the assailant himself and his family, and for our church members as they deal with this tragic loss. In this day, where uncertainty seems to abound creating an environment in which people are vulnerable in doing things they might...