Pastor shot dead during church service*

By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles
Last Updated: 8:19am BST 13/08/2007

A pastor has been shot dead along with two worshippers after a man armed
with three guns opened fire in a Missouri church yesterday

Several other members of the congregation were injured in the shooting,
which occurred shortly before 2pm at the First Congregational Church in
Neosho, some 300 miles south west of St Louis.

One of those killed was the Reverend Kernal Rehobson, 44, who led the
local congregation of predominantly Micronesian worshippers. The other
two victims were male members of the congregation acting as deacons.

Police said the gunman ordered all children out of the church before
briefly holding hostage about 25 to 50 people after the lunchtime
service in the church sanctuary.

Hostage negotiators spoke with the man for about 10 minutes before
police entered through the basement and the gunman surrendered. “At the
time that the rescue attempt was successful, we had approximately 20
people in the sanctuary still,” Police Chief Dave McCracken said.

The man, armed with two small-caliber handguns and one 9 mm
semiautomatic machine pistol, was said to be related to someone in the
church but was not identified. Members of the congregation, some
believed to have been injured, fled after the shots were fired.

Fewer than 10 people were also shot and wounded and the victims were
taken to hospital by helicopter and ambulance. Rev Rehobson was shot
several times and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mr McCracken said he could not confirm whether the gunman was a member
of the church but he said an incident involving the suspect and a family
which attended the church on Saturday night fueled yesterday’s shootings.

The identities of those shot dead were being withheld, Mr McCracken
said. The suspect was detained in custody pending charges.