> MARYVILLE, Ill. - Illinois State Police say a pastor was shot and killed
> Sunday morning by an assailant at an 8 a.m. worship service.

> In a telephone interview, Jeff Ross, a lay minister at the First Baptist
> Church of Maryville, Ill., said Senior Pastor Fred Winters was shot to
> death after he was hit in the heart and the neck.

> "He's gone home to be free with the Lord," Ross said.

> Parishioners tackled the gunman, who wounded himself with a knife, state
> police told CNN.

> Master Trooper Ralph Timmins says the man walked down the aisle during the
> service, exchanged words with the pastor, then drew a .45-caliber handgun
> and fired.

> Timmins said the man fatally shot Winters once before the gun jammed, then
> pulled out a knife and wounded himself.

> Churchgoers tried to subdue the attacker, and two of them were slightly
> hurt.

> Timmins said officials don't know whether Winters and the suspect knew
> each other.

> Ross said that over the last 21 years, Winters built the congregation up
> from about 30 to 1,500 members. "This is just Satan. Who else would do it?
> Someone who wanted to stop his message," he said.

> Winters was married and had two daughters, Ross said. Winters had led
> First Baptist for nearly 22 years and was the former president of the
> Illinois Baptist State Association and an adjunct professor for Midwestern
> Baptist Theological Seminary, according to the church's website.

> Ross described the church as occupying a suburban location about 18 miles
> outside St. Louis in an area largely untroubled by crime or violence. "He
> built this church in a cornfield," he said of Winters, "and now houses are
> filling in around us."

> Winters, he said, "was on fire for the Lord. He only worried about people
> who were lost."

> He said he and other church members were praying for the gunman. "He's
> still alive, so there's still a chance for him to turn his life around and
> find the Lord."