Posted on 06/17/2013 1:42:05 AM PDT by markomalley
Everything was calm and peaceful at St. James Catholic Church on Sunday afternoon before a man walked in and shot his father-in-law in the back of the head.
Witnesses said they had just started to say a prayer when a man and woman walked into the church holding hands.
The victim and his wife “were sitting in the back pew off to the right side when their daughter and her husband walked in holding hands,” said Leon Bedford. “He walked up to (the man) and leaned over and pointed his gun at him criminal style and pulled the trigger.”
The gunman then turned around and fled onto Harrison Boulevard, Bedford said. Several members of the congregation chased him.
“ It was very peaceful up to that point. Very quiet,” said Rebecca Ory Hernandez. “We stood up to say a prayer and then there was the loudest noise. The sound ... the sound. My ears are still hurting. It was so loud.”
Hernandez said she immediately jumped on top of her 5-year-old son to protect him and then called 911.
“It was about 12:15,” she said. “I ran over to the victim and pulled my scarf off and put it around his head. I was talking to him and just telling him to breathe and that everything was going to be OK. He was warm and his heart rate felt normal. He was pretty calm but there was so much blood.”
Hernandez said she asked if anyone had any extra fabric and a man pulled off his T-shirt to lay underneath the victim's head.
“Everything happened so fast,” she said.
Teresa Bedford said she went over to try to help the victim as well.
“They are good friends of ours. We are just devastated by this,” she said. “There was blood everywhere. It was awful. His wife is a nurse and she was assisting him. A lot of people were crowded around trying to help.”
Police are hunting Charles Richard Jennings Jr., 35. They said he fled in a stolen white GMC pickup.
Hernandez said the congregation was told by the priest that the suspect has been involved in domestic violence and has abused his wife.
“I’m assuming he brought her to church to watch him kill her father on Father’s Day,” she said. “How dare he come into our sacred little church and do something like this? He came in on Father’s Day and (shot) his father-in-law and then like a coward he turned and ran away.”
Bedford said he thinks the man’s actions were premeditated.
“Oh it’s obvious it was well planned out,” he said. “They came into the church hand in hand and he walked right up to (the victim) and pulled that trigger."
As a follow up:OGDEN — Police have arrested a man accused of walking into a Catholic church and shooting a man in the back of the head during Mass on Sunday in Ogden.
Investigators say 35-year-old Charles Richard Jennings Jr. was captured Sunday afternoon in nearby Box Elder County after fleeing in a stolen pickup truck.
Witnesses say they heard one gunshot during the 11:30 a.m. Mass at Saint James the Just Catholic Church and that parishioners immediately hit the floor.
The victim was taken to McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, where he was listed in critical but stable condition. Police didn’t immediately release his name but did say the victim was deliberately targeted by the gunman and it wasn’t a random act of violence.
While police haven’t disclosed the relationship between the two, parishioners say the victim was the gunman’s father-in-law and there had been problems between the suspect and his wife.
Ogden police say Jennings was apprehended without incident in Box Elder County and thank the Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office and the Utah Highway Patrol for their assistance.
Utah?
I know some of the people involved. The victim’s wife and the priest saying the Mass The son-in-law had domestic violence problems with his own wife. From what I have been told by friends closer to the situation, the victim was hit in the lower part of the head, and from what I gather the bullet did not enter the brain. The victim was in surgery for a number of hours, and had been critical but stable initially. Though he isn’t out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination, he came through it and they are hopeful for a good prognosis. The victim’s wife, was a nurse of many years experience and by all accounts went into nurse mode and acted like a champ, as did the priest, and various people in the church who reacted quickly and well. Suspect was apprehended a few hours later by police. He’d taken someone’s vehicle at gunpoint and was likely en route to Idaho when he ran out of gas. Police apprehended him and took him into custody. I’m quite sure the wife of the perp in no way knew her husband was going to do what he did.
[BTW. the service DID later finish after victim taken to hospital. They also prayed for the victim, his family, and the perp. The priest was one of the ones who did chase the suspect out the door along with other men. Besides the victim’s wife, others in the congregation had some training (including the priest) and they kept the victim calm and conscious before emergency response arrived. Mass scheduled later that evening was cancelled, the church being a crime scene. HOWEVER Monday morning mass (today) will be held, and there will also be a reconsecration of the church on Thursday evening.]
May God help this man pull through. Amen.
BTW, the priest was also an ex-Air Force military Chaplain.
and what did the perp’s wife do when her husband shot her dad?
The pastor of St. James is Fr. Erik Richtsteig, who writes the Orthometer blog.
She was horrified. I know she had a very good relationship with her parents. Used to stay with them when her marriage to the perp was undergoing shall I say “hardship.” He had committed domestic violence on her in the past. He had some run ins with the law, but nothing like shooting anyone - theft and the like. Apparently his “punk ass style” of shooting the weapon may well have saved the vic. as shooting sideways is likely to be less accurate. Daughter was with both parents at the hospital last night. They have another daughter who lives elsewhere who will be coming to help.
I’ve done everyone the service of condensing the story by removing the irrelevent tabloid sensationalization and focused on the relevant facts:
…at St. James Catholic Church on Sunday afternoon…Witnesses said they had just started to say a prayer when a man and woman walked into the church holding hands.
The victim and his wife “were sitting in the back pew off to the right side when their daughter and her husband walked in holding hands,” said Leon Bedford. “He walked up to (the man) and leaned over and pointed his gun at him criminal style and pulled the trigger.”
The gunman then turned around and fled onto Harrison Boulevard, Bedford said. Several members of the congregation chased him.
Police are hunting Charles Richard Jennings Jr., 35. They said he fled in a stolen white GMC pickup.
Hernandez said the congregation was told by the priest that the suspect has been involved in domestic violence and has abused his wife.
“I’m assuming he brought her to church to watch him kill her father on Father’s Day,” she said.
“Bedford said he thinks the man’s actions were premeditated.”
Duh
so he had tricked her by saying “Let’s go to church on Father’s Day with your dad?”
-——It was about 12:15-——
Bad things can happen is services run beyond noon.
looks like a gang banger with all those tats...
I know the victim’s wife, and people who were IN the church at the time it happened. I have other reports that said the perp and his wife were NOT “holding hands” — so there are conflicting eye witness reports. I do know that the man who was shot and his wife were sitting at the back.
The wife had excellent relationships with both her parents - and the priest (whom I also know) had said the perp had in past committed domestic violence on his wife, and the police records seem to indicate that past. So PLEASE do not make it sound like the daughter was okay with what the husband did. They also have a young under school age toddler son, who was apparently not present. I know from a source who would know that the daughter went to the hospital with her mom and dad.
I don’t have TV. I like to get to the heart of news stories. I am very annoyed by the “eyewitness” account of how they “felt” during an event.
The singular purpose of my post was to eliminate the fluff crap from the story and get on with what actually happened according to the reporter. And it was in no way to support the veracity of the facts, as reported in the story. The “handholding” is a worthwhile part of the story. If it is wrong, well, that matters to me as well.
Something wierd was definitely going on there, that’s for sure.
Nothing “weird” about it. Skippy, did you not read? I KNOW the wife of the victim. The DAUGHTER DID NOT KNOW her husband was going to pull on a gun on her father. She IS DISTRAUGHT WHAT PART OF THIS ARE YOU NOT FREAKING GETTING?
This perp. had a history of domestic violence against the perp.’s wife, the victim’s daughter. I think I have just a weensie bit more information than some reporter who was getting conflicting [and often times people thought they saw X or misinterpret X] stuff, or the reporter may have misinterpreted what was said. It’s like it being “gospel” that Sarah Palin said she could see Russia from her house. Or it still being bandied about that Rush L. said Sandra F. was a “slut.” [Which he DIDN’T ... he asked if she *was* which is different from saying she was, because by what she herself said to use that amount of money on BC one would wonder if she was running a business on the side that required $1000 purchases of condoms to claim she was spending. But the news media gets it wrong and it’s repeated to satisfy an agenda!]
I ALSO know the priest involved. The reason I commented at all was to let everyone know that the victim looks like he can pull out of it, and from what *inside* sources tell me the brain was not hit by the bullet. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, or that something else may not happen to his physical condition, but I know that naturally a lot of people will wonder how the man is holding up. His wife has been a champ.]
I wanted to avoid NEEDLESS AND STUPID speculation that the daughter “must have known” or “was in on it” or crap like that because the first news report didn’t say what happened to the daughter and made it sound like there was a vendetta by the both of them skipping in “hand-in-hand” like Bonnie and Clyde or something.
Nothing “weird” about it. Skippy, did you not read? I KNOW the wife of the victim. The DAUGHTER DID NOT KNOW her husband was going to pull on a gun on her father. She IS DISTRAUGHT WHAT PART OF THIS ARE YOU NOT FREAKING GETTING?
The “facts” reported by the reporter are all I care about in a story. Then I can continue to read up on it (if it is important to me) to see if those facts were accurate.
Sure, I read that you said that some said they were not holding hands. It was not relevant to the point I was trying to make. The reporter thought that witnesses said they were so that is what he reported. If they were or not, it actually matters. But how people there “felt” doesn’t.
I don’t care if someone’s ears were still ringing. Or if someone panicked and protected their child. When I read a news story I want relevant information and I hope it is true. The report that they were holding hands may or may not have been true, but it was relevant. In fact, it becomes more relevant if the reporter reported it but it is not true.
i.e. I was not arguing the facts of what happened. I was arguing what facts are relevant TO ME when reading a story. It drives me nuts when they interview neighbors to get their “feelings” about their neighbor going nuts and shooting up his single wide.
Nothing “weird” about it.
You and I are actually in agreement regarding the remaining paragraphs of your post.
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