In a story September 20 about a shooting at a church in Alabama, The Associated Press, relying on information from law enforcement officials, erroneously identified the minister who was wounded.
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Gunshots rang out inside a Selma, Alabama, church over the weekend as 26-year-old James Junior Minter opened fire on his girlfriend, her one-month-old son and the church’s pastor.
“He was a coward for doing what he did and we considered him a flight risk”, Jackson said. Jackson said the woman was Minter’s girlfriend and that the shooting stemmed from a domestic situation. He entered Oasis Tabernacle Church on Sunday and shot his ex-girlfriend, the baby and the church pastor when he tried to intervene. “Because when it happens in here, the doctor said yesterday, he said there is a place in Hell for folks like this”, Carswell said.
“If not for the quick thinking and intervention of the pastor and the other members of the congregation it could have been a massacre in the church”, said District Attorney Michael Jackson.
Minter, 26, is charged with three counts of attempted murder and is now being held in the Dallas County Jail without bond.
A pastor and members of the congregation that wrestled a gun away from a man police say opened fired in an Alabama church are being praised as heroes.
The woman was shot twice with bullets tearing into her chin and shoulder while Bob Carswell was shot in his knees.
“He took a seat on the bench on the front row with his family, and then he just got into it, pulled a weapon and started shooting”, said Lt. Curtis Muhannad with the Selma Police Department.
A judge set bail at $3 million for Minter, whose mother, Rutha Minter, stood beside him briefly in court during an appearance Monday.
He was arrested in May 2011 and charged with menacing for allegedly holding a gun on a man. Those charges, however, were later dismissed.
Minter looked at Brown and the baby with tears in his eyes and that’s when Brown says she knew he was serious.
Earl Carswell said he was able to “hit him on the head but it didn’t seem to slow him down”.
Police recovered the gun reportedly used in the incident and located Minter’s auto near the church.
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Court records do not indicate why prosecutors threw out the case.
