BigJoda

This is a breaking story.  No apparent motive has been announced.  The pastor seems to have been an upstanding guy.

Read the entire story at CNN:

First Baptist Church in Maryville. Site of Sunday's shooting. Courtesy of CNN.

The pastor of a Maryville, Illinois, church was shot to death during a service Sunday in front of horrified parishioners who then tackled the gunman, state police said.

Police say the attacker walked into First Baptist Church of Maryville on Sunday and began firing.

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, said Illinois state police spokesman Ralph Timmins.

The gunman walked in during the service and walked up to the pulpit, opening fire when he was met by Winters, Timmins said. A police dispatcher in Maryville, about 10 miles east of St. Louis, Missouri, told CNN the pastor was shot three times.

Timmins said the gunman’s .45-caliber pistol jammed after he shot Winters. The shooter then pulled out a knife and turned it on himself before being tackled by some of the roughly 150 worshippers attending the church.

Two of those who went after the attacker suffered non-life-threatening injuries, while the suspect’s injuries are “very serious,” Timmins said.

Witness Claudia Bohley told CNN affiliate KSDK she was in the church’s foyer waiting for the service to begin when she heard “pop, pop, pop. … We just couldn’t imagine what had happened.”

She said she ran into the sanctuary and saw what looked like paper scattered on the pulpit. She said she was later told that the bullet hit Winters’ Bible.

“It was like confetti. It went everywhere,” she said. “People were down on their knees and on the floor, screaming and praying.”

She described Winters — who is pictured on the church’s Web site along with his wife and two children — as “such a pleasant pastor.”

St. Louis University Hospital spokeswoman Laura Keller told CNN three males, including the suspect, were brought to the hospital. One was dead on arrival, she said, but the hospital was not releasing names and ages. She said the second was in an operating room and the third was the suspect, whose condition was not immediately available…

Technorati Tags: Church Attack, Shooting