Church shooting suspect angry at religion
July 28, 2008
It’s still a bit early to tell, but it would appear that Jim Adkisson — charged with first-degree murder after a shooting at a Unitarian Universalist church that left two dead and several wounded — was something of an anti-religious bigot.
The man being questioned by police in a deadly church shooting was a “nice guy” who became upset when the subject of religion came up, according to his neighbors.
Jim Adkisson’s neighbors in a Knoxville suburb described him as quiet and helpful, but sensitive about certain topics.
“I was telling him about my daughter graduating from Bible college and I was a Christian and stuff, and he just automatically almost turned angry,” neighbor Karen Massey told WVLT-TV, a CNN affiliate.
“He was angry with his parents because they had made him go to church all his life,” she told the station.
“When the subject of Religion came up, it set off like a light in him or something I noticed,” Massey told WATE-TV, another CNN affiliate. “And at that point I thought I’d never bring up religion again.”
Adkisson, 58, is charged with first-degree murder after the shooting at a Unitarian church during a children’s play Sunday morning, officials said.
Oh, and yeah…he was a quiet loner and a “nice guy” (let’s leave aside the fact, I suppose, that nice people don’t typically shoot other people in cold blood). But it would appear that he harboured a deep-seated hatred of all things religious as well. One wonders if his manifesto, found in his car at the site of the attack, will read like an excerpt from God Is Not Great, by Christopher Hitchens?
