RSS1 Dead and 4 Wounded at Shooting at First Baptist Church in Illinois, Update: Pastor Fred Winters Dead
Sadly, there has been another church shooting …
A gunman opened fire at approximately just before 9:00 am ET this morning at the 
First Baptist Church in Maryville, IL. The shooter injured 5 people before being stabbed by a parishioner. The gun man is reportedly in custody.
UPDATE I: The pastor of the First Baptist Church in Maryville, IL has been shot to death. CNN is reporting that Pastor Fred Winters has died after being shot 3 times by the unknown gun man. Pastor Fred Winters was pronounced dead on arrival to the hospital.
Fred Winters, the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Maryville, was shot and killed during the 8 a.m. service, and the attacker and two parishioners suffered knife wounds in the attack, Illinois state police spokesman Ralph Timmins told CNN affiliate KSDK.
The gunman walked in during the service and walked up to the pulpit, opening fire when he was met by Winters, Timmins said. A Maryville police dispatcher told CNN the pastor was shot three times.
It is also being reported that the gun man was not stabbed by parishioners as initially reported, but that the gunman pulled out a knife and wounded himself along with 2 other church goers who were attempting to subdue the man.
UPDATE II: Accounts of what transpired as gun man opened fire
Congregations members thought that the scene was some kind of staged drama as the gunman walked up the center aisle and shouted out, “Hey, Fred.” When Winter asked whether he could help the man, the gunman pulled out a .45-calibre handgun. Winter raised up a Bible and the gunman fired and the bullet went through the Bible and struck Winter.
At that moment, people began running, screaming and praying.
The gunman’s weapon jammed, so he pulled out a knife as two members of the congregation jumped him and tried to subdue him. The gunman took out a knife and stabbed the two men who jumped him.
“They tried to take him down and they were injured, but their injuries were not life-threatening,” Timmons said.
UPDATE III: Shooter stabbed himself after his gun jammed
UPDATE IV: Time Line of Events
UPDATE V: 27 Year Old responsible for pastor’s death … No Motive Yet
UPDATE VI: Gunman Identified as 27 Year Old Terry Joe Sedlacek and reportedly Mentally Ill
Police did not release the gunman’s name, but the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported late Sunday that a source near the case confirmed that he is Terry Joe Sedlacek, 27, who had developed mental illness after a tick bite, …
According to the newspaper, the man’s mother, Ruth Abernathy, said he contracted the disease after he was bitten by a tick on a family farm in the late 1990s. She described him as an avid outdoorsman and hunter.
The man was taking several medications to combat the disease and seizures, which nearly killed him in 2003, the paper said.
Neighbors, who believed Sedlacek was mentally ill, told a reporter he would sometimes wander into the middle of the road and shout obscenities for no reason.
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Comments
19 Responses to “1 Dead and 4 Wounded at Shooting at First Baptist Church in Illinois, Update: Pastor Fred Winters Dead”
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Sadly another lunatic takes his issues out on defenseless people.
I must admit when I first heard this story I was a bit skeptical that the partitioner’s stabbed the man. One usually does not bring a knife to church.
God Bless these people.
R
((edit))
the evil goes to church tooo .. reminds me of a saying that was told to me about dating men you meet in church and later become violent and into porn!
THE DEVIL GOES TO CHURCH
IS WHAT I MEANT
Is Scaredmonkeys.net down?
I keep getting a ‘parse template error”
____________________
SM: It’s back up now, Dugga fixed it! (klaasend)
Thanks, Klaas!
Sadly the pastor didn’t have a bullet-proof cover.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/395523/BulletProof-Bible-Cool-1951-Magazine-Ad
The pastor used his Bible to shield himself and, sadly, it didn’t work. Looks like it is time to put guards at the doors of houses of worship…just wonder how we got to this????
lets drop the religious institutes.
you don’t need a church to believe
Dolf…can’t we just let each person make a choice? Some need the association with others in a religious setting, also by pooling resources, people can receive help when they need it.
Dolf
Because some idiot decided to open fire on a preacher in church, you think we need to close church’s? Oh sure, the atheists would love that. Why should we give up places of worship? It’s not the Churches that are the problem. It’s evil.
Bravo Michelle so true!!
no, I am against religious institutes, cause 9outof10 times they fraud the believers or take advantage of them.
In everybody there is a god, some ppl however choose to let the devil out instead.
if you live by the 10 commandments, you don’t need a church.
However, if you want to go….be my guest and i hope that the priest/pastor is a honest man.
#13 Dolf
I don’t know where you get your information but 9 out of 10..Please! Everybody does not believe in GOD, you are mistaken on that one.
There is nothing wrong with religious people having a place to worship. What is wrong is wackos that go around killing for whatever reason. A person makes the decision of being good or evil. You think we need to close down all schools to because sometimes bad things happen in schools to?
You make absolutely no sense.
Michelle, your so clueless.
how many of those tv priests have been caught?
how many priests have been caught molesting little kids.
Look into the history of the Roman Catholic church, makes Islam look like amateurs
_________-
SM: Molesting kids, cutting off people’s heads and calling for jihad … eh, what’s the difference? I will never condone the molesting of kids or the cover up; however, to compare that to the killing of infidels is an apples and oranges argument.
There is a difference here. One is the act of selfish, greedy and flawed individuals when it comes to corruption in the church. The other is a war on other religions. Were there crusades? Yes. However, there was this little thing in the Catholic/Protestant religion called the Reformation.
Islam has never had such an event and is the reason why it still lives in the 15th century.
R
I agree, Islam could use some separate thinkers who takes it to the 21st century.
There are muslims who fight against this, but they are outnumbered.
The fact that leaders of Islamic countries abuse the faith to serve their goals also doesn’t do much good.
the worst form of Islam is comming from Saudi, funded with Saudi money (wahabisme)….got to like those US friends…..
Christianity also has its wars (Northern Ireland), but in the end we christians killed more ppl then any other faith.
just go to Lourdes, France. There you see the ugly side of christian religion.
my parents cried in shame when we went there in my youth
Dolf, I’m not clueless. You can’t claim that all Church’s are bad because some Priests or some Pastors have been caught doing things they shouldn’t. How many cops have you seen arrested for doing things they aren’t supposed to? Doesn’t mean all cops are bad.
You are being silly. If you don’t want to go to Church, fine don’t go but to say Churches should be closed because some people are bad is ridiculous.
And yes all religions have their fanatics and extremists.
comming from the top down