Gunman slays 4 at Texas church, then kills self
Killer strikes without warning at rural Assembly of God church
Updated: 11:58 a.m. ET Aug. 29, 2005
HONEY GROVE, Texas - A gunman killed four people at a rural church in a small north Texas town, then held off police in an nine-hour standoff before apparently killing himself, officials said Monday.
At least one other person was wounded.
The gunman reportedly knocked on the door of the Sash Assembly of God church Sunday night, then started firing when the door was opened. Three people were shot, including the pastor, according to WFAA-TV in Dallas. It was not immediately clear if the pastor was the wounded person or one of the two dead. Story continues below ?
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Two women in a car outside the church were then shot and killed, police said.
“These two ladies, from what it appeared, happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Fannin County Sheriff Kenneth Moore said.
The man fled and was later tracked to his home near the church in Sash, an unincorporated community about 80 miles north of Dallas near the Oklahoma border.
Sheriff’s deputies and a SWAT team surrounded the house, and after the long standoff police initially said the man surrendered just before 6 a.m.
However, when officers entered the home they found the man dead, Moore said.
“We have good reason to believe, based at what we see at the scene, that it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Moore said.
Moore said the motive for the shootings had not been determined.
The identities of the gunman and the people killed at the church were not released.