Shooting suspect 'turned angry' at Bible

A suspect in a church shooting that left two people dead over the weekend apparently resented Christianity, disliked the Bible and even got angry over the fact a neighbor's daughter graduated from a Bible college, according to a new report.

Karen Massey is a neighbor to Jim D. Adkisson, who is suspected of opening fire at a Tennessee Unitarian Universalist church over the weekend, killing two people.

She told the Knoxville News-Sentinel the accusations left her sickened and distressed.

"I'm saddened for the church, I'm saddened by what happened, but I'm also saddened for him, as well," Massey told the newspaper. "He was my friend. If I needed him for anything, he would have done it for me."

But she said a conversation with Adkisson from several years ago made such an impression she still recalled it.

It happened just after Massey's daughter, Cameron, graduated from Johnson Bible College. She was eager to share the news and talked about her daughter's accomplishment with Adkisson.

Massey wondered about his reaction, and ended up explaining she is a Christian. He then erupted, the newspaper reported.

"He almost turned angry," she told the paper. "He seemed to get angry at that. He said that everything in the Bible contradicts itself if you read it.

"I was shocked that he had feelings like that, because I don't have the same beliefs. I believe in the King James Bible, I believe it literally. … He had his own sense of belief about religion; that's the impression I got of him."

Massey told the News-Sentinel Adkisson also talked frequently about his parents and blamed them for making "him go to church all his life."

"He acted like he was forced to do that," Massey said.

Authorities are investigating but haven't stated a suspected motive for the shootings, which happened yesterday in the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. Another seven people were injured.

Adkisson, 58, is facing charges of murder and was being held on $1 million bond, authorities said.

Authorities report a letter they found revealed Adkisson expected to die in the church attack. They say Greg McKendry, 60, was killed in the attack, and Linda Kraeger, 61, died a few hours later.

On the newspaper's online forum, a reader was puzzled by Adkisson's choice of a church that accepts a variety of religious beliefs: "This guy had a passion against Christianity and the Bible, and so he attacked a Unitarian Church?"

The Associated Press reported Adkisson, who Police Chief Sterling Owen said had "stated hatred of the liberal movement," was tackled and held by church participants.