Conservative shoots liberal churchgoers, kills 2

[Tock]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080728/...hurch_shooting

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - An unemployed man accused of opening fire with a shotgun and killing two people at a Unitarian church apparently targeted the congregation out of hatred for its liberal social policies, police said Monday.

Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen IV said a letter had been been recovered from the SUV of Jim D. Adkisson, 58, by investigators seeking clues about the motive behind the attack. Authorities said he was an apparent stranger to the Tennessee church where gunfire punctuated a children's performance based on the musical "Annie." Two people were killed and seven wounded Sunday.

"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 of the liberal movement," Owen said at a news conference.

No children were hurt, but five people remained in serious or critical condition Monday. A burly usher who died is being hailed as a hero for shielding others from gunfire Sunday at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. Witnesses said some of the men present tackled a man who pulled a shotgun from a guitar case before at least three blasts rang out.

Adkisson, who is charged with first-degree murder, remained jailed Monday under "close observation" on $1 million bail, authorities said.

The Unitarian-Universalist church promotes progressive social work, including advocacy of women and gay rights. The Knoxville congregation also has provided sanctuary for political refugees, fed the homeless and founded a chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, according to its Web site.

Owen said the letter indicated Adkisson, who neighbors said had previously worked as a truck driver, did not expect to leave the church alive. He added the man also reported having no family or next-of-kin.

"He certainly intended to take a lot of casualties," Owen said. "He had 76 rounds with him."

Police said Adkisson carried a 12-guage semiautomatic shotgun into the church in a guitar case, but it appeared no specific person was targeted in the church. A search of his house also turned up a .38 caliber handgun, Owen added.

Investigators were reviewing several home video recordings of the children's performance for any evidence. Owen said police don't plan to release those videos and they did not make public a copy of Adkisson's letter.

Unitarians have roots in a movement that rejected Puritan orthodoxy in New England. Although the outlook and beliefs of individual Unitarian churches can vary dramatically, most congregations retain a deep commitment to social justice, which has led them to embrace liberal positions over the years. Unitarians were among the first to ordain women, support the civil rights movement and back gay rights.

The shooting started as about 200 people watched a show put on by 25 children.

Church member Mark Harmon said he was in the first row when he heard "an incredibly loud bang." He thought the noise was part of the play, then he heard another bang and saw a woman bleeding as he dove for cover.

"It seems so unreal," Harmon said.

Church members praised Greg McKendry, 60, who died as he attempted to block the gunfire. Barbara Kemper said that McKendry "stood in the front of the gunman and took the blast to protect the rest of us."

Kemper said the gunman shouted before he opened fire.
"It was hateful words. He was saying hateful things," she said, refusing to elaborate.


"Greg McKendry was a very large gentleman, one of those people you might describe as a refrigerator with a head," said church member Schera Chadwick. "He looked like a football player. He did obviously stand up and put himself in between the shooter and the congregation."

A second victim was identified as Linda Kraeger, 61. She died at a hospital hours later, Kenner said.

Officials said Adkisson was arraigned Sunday night and faces his next court appearance Aug. 5.

Other Unitarian congregations held tearful services afterward. At a packed Westside Unitarian Universalist Church in suburban Farragut, congregants prayed, sang and consoled each other.

The shooting follows a December 2007 spree in which a man shot four staff members at a missionary training center near Denver, Colo., killing two, after being told he couldn't spend the night. About 12 hours later and 65 miles away in Colorado Springs, police say the 24-year-old man fatally shot a parishioner at a megachurch and wounded four others before killing himself.


___ On the Net: http://www.tvuuc.org

[Tock]

Here's how a popular conservative website spins this story,
essentially painting the murderer as a non-christian nutcase:

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http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?f...w&pageId=70794

FAITH UNDER FIRE
Shooting suspect 'turned angry' at Bible
'He said that everything in Scripture contradicts itself if you read it'

Posted: July 28, 2008
12:22 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily


A suspect in a church shooting that left two people dead over the weekend apparently resented Christianity, disliked the Bible and even got angry over the fact a neighbor's daughter graduated from a Bible college, according to a new report.

Karen Massey is a neighbor to Jim D. Adkisson, who is suspected of opening fire at a Tennessee Unitarian Universalist church over the weekend, killing two people.

She told the Knoxville News-Sentinel the accusations left her sickened and distressed.

"I'm saddened for the church, I'm saddened by what happened, but I'm also saddened for him, as well," Massey told the newspaper. "He was my friend. If I needed him for anything, he would have done it for me."

But she said a conversation with Adkisson from several years ago made such an impression she still recalled it.

It happened just after Massey's daughter, Cameron, graduated from Johnson Bible College. She was eager to share the news and talked about her daughter's accomplishment with Adkisson.


Massey wondered about his reaction, and ended up explaining she is a Christian. He then erupted, the newspaper reported.

"He almost turned angry," she told the paper. "He seemed to get angry at that. He said that everything in the Bible contradicts itself if you read it.

"I was shocked that he had feelings like that, because I don't have the same beliefs. I believe in the King James Bible, I believe it literally. … He had his own sense of belief about religion; that's the impression I got of him."

Massey told the News-Sentinel Adkisson also talked frequently about his parents and blamed them for making "him go to church all his life."

"He acted like he was forced to do that," Massey said.
Authorities are investigating but haven't stated a suspected motive for the shootings, which happened yesterday in the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. Another seven people were injured.

Adkisson, 58, is facing charges of murder and was being held on $1 million bond, authorities said.

Authorities report a letter they found revealed Adkisson expected to die in the church attack. They say Greg McKendry, 60, was killed in the attack, and Linda Kraeger, 61, died a few hours later.

On the newspaper's online forum, a reader was puzzled by Adkisson's choice of a church that accepts a variety of religious beliefs: "This guy had a passion against Christianity and the Bible, and so he attacked a Unitarian Church?"

The Associated Press reported Adkisson, who Police Chief Sterling Owen said had "stated hatred of the liberal movement," was tackled and held by church participants.

[RA]

Yes, the fact that hes a conservative drove him to kill. Ridiculous...your title is misleading.

[Tock]

Seems there are more upset conservatives out there shooting liberals than there are upset liberals shooting conservatives.

Nope, the title is not misleading.

[Tock]

This guy, for instance, I'll bet he's more conservative than liberal:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080807/...r/obama_threat

Man held in Fla. on charge of threatening Obama



MIAMI - A man who authorities said was keeping weapons and military-style gear in his hotel room and car appeared in court Thursday on charges he threatened to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Raymond Hunter Geisel, 22, was arrested by the Secret Service on Saturday in Miami and was ordered held at Miami's downtown detention center without bail Thursday by a federal magistrate.

A Secret Service affidavit charges that Geisel made the threat during a training class for bail bondsmen in Miami in late July. According to someone else in the 48-member class, Geisel allegedly referred to Obama with a racial epithet and continued, "If he gets elected, I'll assassinate him myself."

Obama was most recently in Florida on Aug. 1-2 but did not visit the South Florida area.

Another person in the class quoted Geisel as saying that "he hated George W. Bush and that he wanted to put a bullet in the president's head," according to the Secret Service.

Geisel denied in a written statement to a Secret Service agent that he ever made those threats, and the documents don't indicate that he ever took steps to carry out any assassination. He was charged only with threatening Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, but not for any threat against President Bush.

Geisel's court-appointed attorney declined comment. The charge of threatening a major candidate for president or vice president carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.

The Obama campaign declined comment Thursday on the alleged threat.

In the interview with a Secret Service agent, Geisel said "if he wanted to kill Senator Obama he simply would shoot him with a sniper rifle, but then he claimed that he was just joking," according to court documents.

A search of Geisel's 1998 Ford Explorer and hotel room in Miami uncovered a loaded 9mm handgun, knives, dozens of rounds of ammunition including armor-piercing types, body armor, military-style fatigues and a machete. The SUV, which has Maine license plates, was wired with flashing red and yellow emergency lights.

Geisel told the Secret Service he was originally from Bangor, Maine, and had been living recently in a houseboat in the Florida Keys town of Marathon, according to court documents. He said he used the handgun for training for the bail bondsman class, had the knives for protection and used the machete to cut brush in Maine.

Authorities in Maine said Geisel pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal threatening after a 2007 incident and spent 48 hours in a Bangor jail.

Police in Hampden, a town just outside of Bangor, received a complaint from Geisel's brother on Oct. 18, 2007 that Geisel had threatened him with a knife, Hampden police Sgt. Dan Stewart said. Geisel was charged with criminal threatening and terrorizing; the second charge was later dropped.

The Secret Service affidavit said Geisel told agents that he suffered from psychiatric problems including post-traumatic stress disorder, but he couldn't provide the names of any facilities where he sought treatment.
___