73-year-old woman succumbs to injuries; male victim, 60, called a hero
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Attack in church July 27: A gunman burst into a Knoxville, Tenn., church and opened fire during a children’s production of “Annie,” killing one and wounding eight. NBC’s Michelle Kosinski reports. Nightly News |
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 One dead in shooting at church July 27: A gunman burst into a Knoxville, Tenn., church and opened fire during a children’s production of “Annie,” killing one and wounding eight. NBC’s Michelle Kosinski reports. |
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - A gunman opened fire at a church youth performance Sunday, injuring seven people and killing an elderly woman and a man who witnesses called a hero for shielding others from a shotgun blast.
Members of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church said they dove under pews or ran from the building when the shooting started. The gunman was tackled by congregants and eventually taken into police custody.
None of the children were injured. A hospital spokeswoman said several of the wounded were in critical condition. Two others were treated and released.
Jim D. Adkisson, 58, was charged with first-degree murder and was being held on $1 million bail, according to city spokesman Randy Kenner, who did not know if the suspect had retained an attorney. Authorities were searching Adkisson's home in the Knoxville bedroom community of Powell, Kenner said.
A 73-year-old woman injured in the attack died late Sunday, Kenner said.
The man slain was identified as Greg McKendry, 60, a longtime church member and usher. Church member Barbara Kemper told The Associated Press that McKendry "stood in the front of the gunman and took the blast to protect the rest of us."
Motive uncertain
The gunman's motive is not yet known. The church, like many other Unitarian Universalist churches, promotes progressive social work, such as desegregation and fighting for the rights of women and gays. The Knoxville congregation has provided sanctuary for political refugees, fed the homeless and founded a chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, according to its Web site.
Kemper said the gunman shouted before he opened fire.
"It was hateful words. He was saying hateful things," she said, but refused to elaborate.
The FBI was assisting in the case, Police Chief Sterling Owen said, in case it was a hate crime. Police cordoned off the church with yellow and red tape, and were taking statements and collecting video cameras from church members who taped the performance.
There were about 200 people watching the performance by 25 children when the shooting took place.
Church member Mark Harmon was in the first row. "It had barely begun when there was an incredibly loud bang," he said.
Harmon said he thought the noise was part of the play, then he heard a second loud bang. As he dove for cover, he realized a woman behind him was bleeding. She looked like she was in shock, touching her wound, he said.
"It seems so unreal," Harmon said. "You're sitting in church, you're watching a children's performance of a play and suddenly you hear a bang."
Shotgun in guitar case
Harmon said church members just behind him in the second and third rows were shot. He said his wife told him that she saw the gunman pull the shotgun out of a guitar case.
Witnesses reported hearing about three blasts from the .12-gauge shotgun, which spreads pellets out when the shot leaves the barrel. Witnesses said they did not recognize the gunman.
Friends of the slain victim said he was friendly with everyone.
"Greg McKendry was a very large gentlemen, one of those people you might describe as a refrigerator with a head," said member Schera Chadwick, whose husband, Ted Lollis, arrived at the church just after the shooting. "He looked like a football player. He did obviously stand up and put himself in between the shooter and the congregation."
McKendry and his wife had recently taken in a foster child.
The church's minister was on vacation in western North Carolina at the time of the shooting but returned Sunday afternoon.
"We've been touched by a horrible act of violence. We are in a process of healing and we ask everyone for your prayers," the Rev. Chris Buice said in a statement outside the church. "I will tell you we love Greg McKendry. We are grieving the loss of a wonderful man."
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25872864/
