'No One Can Fathom a Motive': Pastor Shot During Service
Shooting at First Baptist Church in Maryville, Ill., kills Pastor Fred Winters.
March 8, 2009— -- Police are still searching for a motive in a shooting during a morning church service outside St. Louis that left one person dead -- the church's pastor -- and several others wounded.
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 wearing dark clothing approached the pulpit, exchanged words with the pastor and then fired four shots, Illinois State Police Director Larry Trent said at a news conference late today.
"It was something spoken, but the people closest to them at the time couldn't say what that was," Trent said. "The pastor may have recognized him ... but we're not sure about that at all."
The first shot hit the pastor's Bible.
"It hit the very top of the Bible and exploded on top of the Bible and turned into what many thought was confetti," Trent said. "In fact, some thought it was some type of skit or some type of program at the time."
One of the shots from the gunman's .45 caliber pistol hit Winters in the chest, killing him, before his gun jammed, said Trooper Ralph Timmins of the Illinois State Police, which is handling the investigation.
After his gun jammed, the shooter injured himself with a knife and subsequently was restrained by parishioners, Timmins said in a "preliminary release" left on his office voicemail recording. Approximately 150 people were in the church at the time, and Trent said video recordings of the service may provide clues as to what triggered the shooting.
Two parishioners who "tackled" the shooter received "non-life-threatening" injuries from the knife, Timmins said.
Winters was "pronounced [dead] at the hospital for a single gunshot wound to the chest," Timmins said.
Jeremy Kohler, a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, told ABC News Radio that there's "a lot of sadness and disbelief out there" -- and members of the community are trying to figure out how it could have happened.
"No one can even fathom a motive for the shooting," Kohler said. "No one really seems to recognize [the shooter] as being a member of the church."
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