Church shooting suspect has mental illness from Lyme disease

St. Louis Post-Dispatch ^ | 8 March 2009 | Joel Currier, Jeremy Kohler and Nicholas J.C. Pistor

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Church shooting suspect has mental illness from Lyme disease By Joel Currier, Jeremy Kohler and Nicholas J.C. Pistor ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 03/09/2009 MARYVILLE — A man suspected of killing the Rev. Fred Winters during a church service in Maryville on Sunday morning had developed mental illness from a tick bite, his family has said. Police did not release the name of the suspect, who was seriously injured in a struggle with members of the congregation after the shooting of Winters at the First Baptist Church. But a source close to the case confirmed late Sunday that it is Terry Joe Sedlacek, 27, who was the subject of a Post-Dispatch story in August about how Lyme disease had attacked his brain.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Gosh.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"...a source close to the case confirmed late Sunday that it is Terry Joe Sedlacek, 27, who was the subject of a Post-Dispatch story in August about how Lyme disease had attacked his brain.

His home in the first block of Zachary Court in Troy, Ill., about three miles from the church, was searched late Sunday afternoon by police, who seized some gun cases and a computer. They would not comment.

Vehicle records show that Sedlacek is part-owner of a Jeep Wrangler parked outside the crime scene...."

[LimaLimaMikeFoxtrot]

Reportedly some of the congregants thought the shooting was a "skit".

You gotta be frikkin kidding me.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Lyme is nothing to mess around with. I’ve had it myself, fortunately caught early after just two weeks, but not before it caused joint and eye issues. Fortunately it’s readily addressed with some common and benign antibiotics. Left alone, it can ravage your body (it is biologically related to syphilis) and cause many neurological symptoms.

[sinanju]

“He was the subject of an Aug. 6, 2008, Post-Dispatch article about his battle with mental illness attributed to Lyme disease. The man’s mother, Ruth Abernathy, said her son, an avid hunter and outdoorsman, may have contracted the disease after being bitten by an infected tick on a family farm in the late 1990s.

He became ill during his junior year at Edwardsville High School and had taken several medications, including anti-seizure drugs, to combat the disease. It nearly killed him in 2003, but he survived after a series of treatments and was reported to have lesions on his brain.”

____________________________________________________________________________________

Horrible. So it can make both men and chimps crazy?

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Skits are common in protestant churches today, particularly of the evangelical persuasion. I’m unfond of them, but our own church has them occasionally, like when a parishioner dressed up as a homeless person and ran crying for help down the aisle. Some sort of lesson on helping the less fortunate ensued.

So it’s not unfeasible that folks thought this was something of the sort. For a few seconds at least.

[BobbyT]

Ah yes.

The process of making the killer blameless and the gun to blame has begun.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Horrible. So it can make both men and chimps crazy?"

Dunno about chimps, but men: yes, very much so. It's a spirochete, much like syphilis. And although ticks are a major vector, any bloodsucking insect can carry it. I caught it from a horsefly bite in Munich, where it is endemic. There, they don't even bother with blood tests. Get bitten, get a round rash, get antibiotics. Doxycycline works and is well tolerated and cheap, but you must be on it for at least two months to catch the spirochete throughout its life cycle.

[ketsu]

Skits are common in protestant churches today, particularly of the evangelical persuasion. I’m unfond of them, but our own church has them occasionally, like when a parishioner dressed up as a homeless person and ran crying for help down the aisle. Some sort of lesson on helping the less fortunate ensued.

So it’s not unfeasible that folks thought this was something of the sort. For a few seconds at least.

I *hate* that stuff. A relative moved from an episcopalian to an "Anglican" evangelical church. They do stupid crud like that all the time. I actually feel ill going to the service because it's like I'm a participant in Jerry Springer.

I may go Catholic just to have a normal service if this keeps up.

[trumandogz]

So now every Terrorist on the Planet can claim to have Lyme Disease and be innocent.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"The process of making the killer blameless and the gun to blame has begun."

It's a tough one in this case. If this report is correct, the guy was clearly suffering from a parasitic attack on his brain. The larger question is why the treatments he'd had did not work, or at least not work in time to prevent the brain lesions.

But you're correct, the sound you hear is the keening wail of liberals calling for more gun restrictions. Even 2nd Amendment absolutists have trouble with crazy people with guns, like that Cho creature at Virginia Tech.

It'll be a while before this one is all sorted out. But meanwhile, it's quite worthy of comment. At least this wasn't a case of Sudden Jihad Syndrome, which many of us had feared (or outright assumed).

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"So now every Terrorist on the Planet can claim to have Lyme Disease and be innocent."

Not unless they can fake the blood test. The spirochetes circulate even long after they're killed by the antibiotics.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

I am in the process of battling Lyme. So glad that they caught yours early ... I was about 5 weeks in before diagnosis and treatment. There are days that I can’t remember anything, but that isn’t so out of the ordinary according to my husband. LOL!

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

What the hell is that?

[Deo volente]

Skits are common in protestant churches today, particularly of the evangelical persuasion. I’m unfond of them, but our own church has them occasionally, like when a parishioner dressed up as a homeless person and ran crying for help down the aisle. Some sort of lesson on helping the less fortunate ensued.

That just doesn't sound like a smart idea, considering the times we live in.

[Luke21]

Yeah yeah yeah. They’re all mentally ill. We know.

[Ditter]

I had never heard of church skits but a woman who was in the church at the time of the shooting said that a skit had just been performed and she thought the shooting was another one. For a split second, I guess.

[ari-freedom]

“If this report is correct, the guy was clearly suffering from a parasitic attack on his brain. “

too bad it conveniently missed the part of the brain that came up with the idea to kill a pastor and effectively carry out the plan.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Reportedly some of the congregants thought the shooting was a "skit".

Apparently they have done skits before and I heard one man recalling the shooting and saying that the preacher's bible, which had been raised in a defensive manner, blew into what appeared to be a cloud of confetti when it was hit with one of the shots. That is what made some think it was a skit.