Church gunman promised suicide and murder, police say*

POSTED: 0213 GMT (1013 HKT), May 21, 2007

Story Highlights
• NEW: Gunman underwent court-ordered psych evaluation
• Idaho gunman killed a sheriff's deputy and another person, then self
• SWAT team stormed church at around 6 a.m. Sunday
• Police found a semi-automatic or automatic rifle next to one of the bodies

MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) -- A gunman suspected of killing three people and
himself said during a court-ordered mental evaluation that if he
committed suicide, he would try to take a large number of people with
him, police said Monday.

Three months after that conversation, authorities say, Jason Hamilton
shot and killed his wife at their home, then drove downtown with two
assault rifles and fired a barrage of bullets into an emergency dispatch
center inside a courthouse and a parking lot outside.

A police officer rushing to the scene late Saturday was killed, and two
officers and a civilian who tried to help were wounded. Investigators
said Hamilton, 36, also killed sexton Paul Bauer, 62, in an office of
the nearby the nearby First Presbyterian Church early Sunday as 911
dispatchers on the phone with Bauer heard the shots. (Watch how the
gunman allegedly ambushed his victims Video)

Officers who stormed the church hours later found a rifle and ammunition
next to Hamilton's body in the sanctuary.

Hamilton had a history of violence, and a judge ordered him evaluated
after he tried to kill himself in February by overdosing on anti-anxiety
medication. Hamilton told a hospital worker that if he really wanted to
commit suicide, he would do it through a mass shooting or bombing,
Assistant Police Chief David Duke said. (Watch how the shooter took his
own life in a church Video)

Hamilton was judged not to need involuntary commitment and was released,
Duke said.

Hamilton was arrested on a felony strangulation charge in September 2005
in a case involving a girlfriend he had while separated from his wife.
Hamilton was convicted of misdemeanor domestic battery of the
girlfriend, who survived, and was sentenced to 180 days in jail, with 90
days suspended, Duke said.

Hamilton was in court again last Tuesday for violating the conditions of
his probation on the domestic violence conviction by halting his mental
health counseling, but the case was delayed until next month, Duke said.

Hamilton knew Bauer, who lived at the church, from his job cleaning
First Presbyterian for a private maintenance service, Duke said.

Hamilton's wife, 30-year-old Crystal Hamilton, was a janitor at the
courthouse, authorities said. Her body, with a gunshot wound to the
head, was found Sunday at the couple's home, Latah County Sheriff Wayne
Rausch said.

Police found 125 shell casings from two types of assault rifles at the
courthouse and the church, Duke said. Officers did not return fire, he said.

Lee Newbill, the first officer at the scene, had served with the police
department since March 2001 and is the city's first officer killed in
the line of duty.

Deputy Brannon Jordan, a 17-year veteran, was shot multiple times as he
took cover behind a tree after pulling Newbill out of the line of fire,
Duke said. Jordan was released from the hospital Monday, Rausch said.

The injured civilian was identified Monday by his mother as Pete
Husmann, 20, a senior UI mechanical engineering student from Coeur d'Alene.

She said he was shot three times as he rushed from his apartment with a
pistol to render aid after hearing the gunshots. He was in serious but
stable condition and was to undergo another surgery Monday, she said.

Moscow, home of the University of Idaho, is located 80 miles south of
Spokane, Washington, and surrounded by vast farmland. Graduation
ceremonies at the university were just a week ago.