Texas Church Shooting Kills Pastor, Injures Two

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

(Worthy News) – A devoted Christian community in the U.S. state of Texas was left grieving after their pastor was killed and two others injured Sunday.

The shootings at Starrville Methodist Church in Winona, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Dallas, happened after pastor Mark McWilliams, 62, found the suspect hiding in a bathroom, police said. Authorities had been using dogs and drones to search for the man late Saturday in woods near Winona following a car chase.

Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith told reporters that McWilliams drew his gun and ordered the suspect, Mytrez Woolen, 21, to lay on the floor. But the pastor became distracted while talking to his wife, who was with him at the church, Smith said.

Woolen allegedly grabbed the weapon and began shooting with it. The pastor was killed, a second person was injured in his back and shoulder by gunfire, and the pastor’s escaping wife was hurt in a fall, Smith explained. The injured man’s condition wasn’t clear.

Woolen was later detained in neighboring Harrison County and, could face charges of capital murder and other crimes, Smith said. He was being held at Smith County jail in lieu of a $3.5 million bond, jail records reportedly showed.

Smith said he did not know why the man was initially being pursued before the shooting took place, but that the license plates on his vehicle were “fictitious.”

It comes amid a debate about guns in the United States, with those supporting owning them saying they save lives while critics cite shooting incidents.

The shooting at Starrville Methodist Church, built-in 1853, came a little more than a year after a gunman opened fire at a church near Fort Worth. That attack killed two people before a congregant fatally shot the attacher.

Texas officials hailed the congregant’s quick action, saying it prevented further killing and showed the effectiveness of the state’s permissive gun legislation.

That includes a 2019 measure affirming the right of licensed handgun holders to carry a weapon in places of worship.

That law was passed in response to the 2017 massacre at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, where a man fatally shot more than two dozen people at a Sunday service before taking his own life.

Since then, an industry has sprung up in Texas and other states to train and arm civilians to protect their churches, reported The Associated Press (AP) news agency. The instructors reportedly use the techniques and equipment of law enforcement.

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