NEOSHO, Mo. (AP) — A man opened fire in the sanctuary of a southwestern Missouri church yesterday, killing the pastor and two worshippers and wounding several others, authorities said.
One of the victims was the Rev. Kernal Rehobson, 44, who led the local congregation of predominantly Micronesian worshippers holding the service at the First Congregational Church, police said.
Mr. Rehobson was shot multiple times and died at the scene, Newton County Coroner Mark Bridges said.
The other two victims were male members of the congregation, whose names were not released, the Joplin Globe reported.
About 25 to 50 people were briefly held hostage at the First Congregational Church until the gunman surrendered, Neosho spokeswoman Desiree Bridges said.
About five people were wounded, police Chief Dave McCracken said, but several others who were injured fled the scene.
The shooter was being held at the Newton County Jail, but police were not releasing any information about him. Miss Bridges said he was related to someone in the church but declined to elaborate. No charges had been filed yesterday, Chief McCracken said.
The gunman had two small-caliber handguns and one 9 mm semiautomatic machine pistol with a large magazine, Chief McCracken said.
The shooting followed the 1 p.m. service, which was attended by about 50 people, ranging in age from children to the elderly. The church opened its doors to the group of worshippers from the Pacific Islands that conduct a service in Spanish, said Patty Mendoza, 35, whose friend attends the service.
“There are a lot of Islanders that come here,” she said. “It’s terrible. I can’t imagine what it was about.”
The gunman surrendered to authorities after about 10 minutes of negotiation.
“At the time that the rescue attempt was successful, we had approximately 20 people in the sanctuary still,” he said. “We had some people who escaped the crime scene prior to the police arrival that were wounded, and we had some people escape during the process and at the time of the rescue.”
He said no one was injured during the arrest.
Chief McCracken said he could not confirm whether the gunman was a member of the church. But he said an incident involving the suspect and a family that attended the First Congregational Church on Saturday night fueled the shooting yesterday.
“At this point though, we don’t have any information more than that,” Chief McCracken said.
The identities of the deceased were being withheld, Chief McCracken said.
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