Front Sight, Press

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) — A shotgun-wielding man opened fire at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church during a children’s play Sunday morning, killing two adults and wounding seven others before being overpowered by congregants, officials said.

Jim Adkisson, 58, was charged with first-degree murder after Sunday’s shooting at the Knoxville church.

One of the victims, Linda Kraeger, 61, died at a hospital several hours after the shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, Knoxville municipal spokesman Randall Kenner said.

Also killed was Greg McKendry, a 60-year-old usher and board member at the church, police said earlier in the day.

A suspect, Jim Adkisson, 58, of Powell, Tennessee, was charged with one count of first-degree murder, Kenner said Sunday evening.

Adkisson is not believed to have been a member of the Knoxville church, and investigators have not determined a motive for the shooting, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen told reporters.

“[The motive] is one thing we’re obviously aggressively pursuing,” Owen said.

Source: CNN

Sunday’s attack was the fourth time in 15 months that an American church became a scene of a fatal shooting.

In December 2007, a 24-year-old former missionary candidate killed two people at a suburban Denver, Colorado, missionary training center and two more at a Colorado Springs megachurch the following day. The gunman, Matthew Murray, killed himself after being shot by a security guard.

The previous August, police said, 52-year-old Eiken Saimon shot and killed three people and wounded five others at a Congregational church in Neosho, Missouri. The attack left three people dead and five wounded.

And that May, in Moscow, Idaho, 36-year-old Jason Hamilton fatally shot a police officer and a sexton at First Presbyterian Church, then killed himself before police stormed the building. Hamilton’s wife was found shot to death in the bedroom of their Moscow home after the church shootings.

Source: CNN

Hate-Crime Investigation After Cops Say Church Shooting Suspect ‘Hated’ Gays, Liberals

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. —  Authorities on Monday said the man charged with murder in a Tennessee church shooting left a four-page letter that detailed his frustration at being unemployed, his hatred of gays and liberals, and his expectation that he would be killed by responding police.

Jim D. Adkisson, 58, has been charged with first-degree murder in the Sunday shooting at a Knoxville, Tenn., Unitarian church that left two people dead and five injured.

“It appears that what brought him to this horrible event was his lack of being able to obtain a job, his frustration over that, and his stated hatred for the liberal movement,” Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen IV said at a press conference Monday.

Source: Fox News

Jim D. Adkisson, 58, of Powell wrote a four-page letter in which he stated his “hatred of the liberal movement,” Owen said. “Liberals in general, as well as gays.”

Adkisson said he also was frustrated about not being able to obtain a job, Owen said.

The letter, recovered from Adkisson’s black 2004 Ford Escape, which was parked in the church’s parking lot at 2931 Kingston Pike, indicates he had been planning the shooting for about a week.

“He fully expected to be killed by the responding police,” the police chief said.

Owen said Adkisson specifically targeted the church for its beliefs, rather than a particular member of the congregation.

“It appears that church had received some publicity regarding its liberal stance,” the chief said. The church has a “gays welcome” sign and regularly runs announcements in the News Sentinel about meetings of the Parents, Friends and Family of Lesbians and Gays meetings at the church.

The church’s Web site states that it has worked for “desegregation, racial harmony, fair wages, women’s rights and gay rights” since the 1950s. Current ministries involve emergency aid for the needy, school tutoring and support for the homeless, as well as a cafe that provides a gathering place for gay and lesbian high-schoolers.

Source: Knoxnews.com

See also: The Christian Gun