Edwardsville, USA - A man was charged with murder Monday for allegedly shooting a southern Illinois pastor through the heart during Sunday services.
Terry Sedlacek, 27, was charged with first-degree murder and aggravated battery, said Stephanee Smith of the Madison County state's attorney's office.
Prosecutors didn't comment on a motive.
Sedlacek (SEHD'-lak), of Troy, allegedly strode toward the Rev. Fred Winters shortly after 8 a.m. Sunday, exchanged words with him, then fired a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol until it jammed. Winters, 45, died of a single shot to the heart, the coroner said Monday.
After the shooting, the gunman pulled out a knife but was tackled by two worshippers, and all three were stabbed, police said. The gunman suffered "a pretty serious wound to the neck" while one worshipper had lower back wounds, said Illinois State Police Director Larry Trent.
Sedlacek, who suffered self-inflicted knife wounds after the shooting, was hospitalized in serious condition in St. Louis, and the judge ordered him held without bond.
Churchgoers knocked the gunman between sets of pews, then held him down until police arrived, said member Don Bohley, who was just outside the sanctuary when the shooting began.
A 39-year-old congregant, Terry Bullard, also remained in serious condition Monday morning. The third victim, Keith Melton, was treated and released.
Authorities said they didn't know whether Winters, a married father of two, knew the gunman.
Several visitors stopped by the church Monday _ one with tear-reddened eyes who dropped off a card. All declined to comment, as did a church receptionist.
None of the 150 worshippers attending the Sunday service seemed to recognize the gunman, and investigators did not know details of Winters' conversation with him, Trent said, but they planned to review an audio recording of the service.
Winters deflected the first of the gunman's four rounds with a Bible, sending a confetti-like spray of paper into the air in a horrifying scene worshippers initially thought was a skit, police said.
"We just sat there waiting for what comes next not realizing that he had wounded the pastor," said Linda Cunningham, whose husband is a minister of adult education at the church.
Winters had stood on an elevated platform to deliver his sermon about finding happiness in the workplace _ titled "Come On, Get Happy" _ and managed to run halfway down the sanctuary's side aisle before collapsing after the attack, Cunningham said.
Autopsy results showed that Winters was hit with one bullet that went straight through his heart, Madison County Coroner Steve Nonn said Monday. Nonn would not comment on the distance between the gunman and the pastor.
Trent said investigators found no immediate evidence of a criminal background for the suspect.
First Baptist had an average attendance of 32 people when Winters became senior pastor in 1987; it now has about 1,200 members and three Sunday services, according to the church's Web site.
Winters was former president of the Illinois Baptist State Association and an adjunct professor for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, according to the site.
He hosted Pizza with the Pastor dinners in his home, and the church organized bowling parties for fathers and daughters, karate classes and a golf league.
The church sits along a busy two-lane highway on the east side of Maryville, a fast-growing village of more than 7,000 about 20 miles northeast of St. Louis. A farm sits directly across from the church, but subdivisions of newer homes can been easily seen from every side.
"Things like this just don't happen in Maryville," Mayor Larry Gulledge said. "We've lost one the pillars of our community, one of our leaders."