Islanders grieve for 3 slain pastors

ANDERSON, Mo. — After the eulogies, after the a cappella hymns in their native tongue, and after hundreds filed out of the funeral home, came the wails.

And the screams. And the streams of tears for the three men who were gunned down in their church sanctuary last week.

Standing over the open caskets of Kernal S. Rehobson, Intenson Rehobson and Kuhpes “Jesse” Ikosia, the people who were closest to them heaved and wept, still in disbelief of the horror a gunman unleashed on their tight-knit Micronesian community.

A gunman barged into the First Congregational Church in Neosho on Aug. 12 and opened fire, killing the three and wounding four others before holding at least two dozen people hostage.

Eiken Elam Saimon, 52, of Neosho was arrested in the church after surrendering to police.

The rampage may have been sparked by the accusation levied against Saimon the night before that he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl who is a member of the church — an accusation authorities say they believe.

“That this horrible thing happened in a church is difficult to comprehend,” said James Naich, Micronesia’s acting ambassador who came from Washington, D. C., to show his government’s support for the estimated 600 Micronesians who live in southern Missouri.

Pacific islanders from Northwest Arkansas, Oklahoma, Iowa and elsewhere attended the service at the Ozark Funeral Home in Anderson, 20 miles north of the Arkansas state line.

Kernal Rehobson, 43, was senior pastor of the Micronesian congregation of the First Congregational Church in Neosho, a town of 10, 000 people that hadn’t seen a homicide for 13 years.

He was remembered Saturday as a “workaholic” who was devout in his faith and always willing to lend a helping hand — whether it was loaning money, bailing someone out of jail or expressing his support.

“I regret I never got to tell my dad how proud of him I was,” his college student son Kevin Rehobson said as his voice cracked.

Wihden Aise, Kernal Rehobson’s friend since grade school, drove from Iowa for the service. He said the fact the siblings of the man accused in the killings attended the funeral was a good example of how close the local Micronesian community is.

“When you’re this far away from home, you tend to overlook shortcomings and each others ’ faults,” Aise said.

Even something as “unjustifiable” as the murder of three revered community leaders likely would have been forgiven without a trial had it happened back home, Aise said.

After the service, Kernal and Intenson Rehobson, Kernal’s uncle and fellow pastor, 44, were buried at the Howard Cemetery in Goodman, where they lived.

The body of their fellow pastor Ikosia, 53, of Neosho will return to Micronesia for burial.

Mourners are expected to gather at 12: 30 p. m. today at the First Congregational Church of Neosho for a ceremony in its prayer garden. Regular services will not be held inside while the crews are cleaning and repairing damage caused by the shootings.

Saimon is charged with three counts of first-degree murder, four counts of assault felonious restraint. He is being held without bond at the Newton County jail.

The surviving victims were identified by police as: Jim M. Handy, 32, Melihna Tarra, 77, Dahnny Jack, 33, and Kendy Handy, 40.

Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland said the night before the rampage, the 14-year-old girl went with her family to a hospital emergency room to report a sexual assault. She named Saimon as the suspect.

“There is nothing to indicate she is not telling us the truth,” Copeland said last week. He said he anticipated prosecutors filing charges once the investigation is complete.

Prior to last Sunday, the only crime authorities say Saimon committed was driving drunk.

Several of the churchgoers, including at least one of the shooting victims, were able to flee the church after Saimon opened fire and call 911, said Neosho Police Chief David McCracken.

The officers who arrived at the church are members of a specialized response team who were called at home to respond to the unprecedented violence in their small town. They said Saimon was holding a gun to a woman, showing no signs of giving up. The decision was clear that they would enter the church even though Saimon was still armed with two handguns, Mc-Cracken said. He had arranged his hostages to surround him in a circle, as human shields, and said he planned to kill one person every 30 minutes. But he made no demands. And he didn’t try to flee. When an officer demanded he surrender, he gave up and was taken into custody. McCracken said police entering the church when they did was the right move. “There’s no doubt in my mind that he would have killed some more people,” McCracken said. “How many, I have no idea.”

I suppose Eiken Elam Saimon didn’t know that it is against Federal law that anyone possess a firearm in a church. That is probably the reason he was the only one there with a firearm.

The two safest places for a gunman to go on a shooting spree in America is in a school or a church. Since both places the federal government has outlawed citizens from lawfully carry a concealed firearm under state law.

By what possible reason, or right, does the federal government usurp the authority and rights of the churches’ pastor, and ultimately the Christians who comprise that church family, to decide if they will or will not allow firearms in their church?

If my pastor does not have a problem with me carrying a firearm in his church, a firearm that the state has duly licensed me to carry concealed, what right does the federal government have to usurp that pastor’s authority within his own church? Why does the federal government do this? Because they can. They know Americans are too busy with their TV fantasies to do anything about it.

There is a great evil in our midst. But Americans are too in love with their TV fantasies’ to recognize it or do anything about it.

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