Gunman Kills Wife, Child, Bystander At Church Service -- Relative Described Marriage As Increasingly Abusive

GONZALES, La. - The pastor had just started reading a Bible lesson about being born again when the gunman kicked open the doors, fired twice into the ceiling and ordered everybody to hit the floor.

He then marched down the aisle, shooting as screaming parishioners scattered in horror and pausing once to calmly reload. Among the crowd, police said, were the man's wife and 2-year-old son.

"His little boy turned and said, `Daddy.' That's when he shot. He hit his wife first and then the baby," congregation member Lolita Enkadi said.

"And then he just started emptying his gun. He shot one in the back of the head. We were all trying to get down. I just lay on the bench and started praying."

Shon Miller's 25-year-old wife, Carla; their son, Shon Jr.; and another member of the New St. John Fellowship Baptist Church were killed last night at the one-story stucco church 20 miles southeast of Baton Rouge. Four others were wounded.

"The safest place in world, I always thought, was a church, and now that sanctuary has been broken," police Chief Bill Landry said.

Miller also shot his mother-in-law, Mildred Vessel, 53, to death at home before going to the church a few blocks away, police said. Her body was behind the wheel of a van that had rolled into a ditch across the street from her home.

Officers said it took three hours of searching near the church in this small town of 7,000 before they found Miller.

When they discovered him in a shed about 100 yards from the church, he tried to kill himself, Landry said. An officer blasted the pistol out of his hand with a shotgun at close range, and another officer's pistol went off accidentally when he stumbled, authorities said.

Miller was in guarded condition today at Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans. He was paralyzed from the waist down with wounds to the back, right hand and face, said hospital spokesman Jerry Romig. Ascension Parish Sheriff Jeff Wiley said today that the bullet from the accidental shot may be what paralyzed Miller.

Miller will be charged with four counts of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted first-degree murder, Landry said.

When the firing started at the church, about 50 to 75 worshippers were inside the building where the congregation is holding services while the big brick church down the street is renovated.

The Rev. Wilbert Holmes said he thought it was some kind of prank when the gunman burst through the foyer doors.

"Then he started shooting," Holmes said "I would think I was his easiest target. Everybody else was sitting down."

But his targets were in the congregation.

The shooting lasted long enough for the gunman to empty one clip in the semi-automatic pistol and then reload and continue shooting into the pews. As he left, Holmes heard him mumble something like, "That will show you."

Carla Miller's brother, Timothy Vessel, said his sister had been married to Miller for two years and the relationship was one of escalating abuse.

Authorities said the fourth victim was Vaniaro Jackson, 19. A woman and a teenage girl were in critical condition, and two other teens were in good condition - one of them Enkadi's 16-year-old son, Donald Rideau, who was shot in the leg.

Derek Breaux, a neighbor of the slain mother-in-law, said he heard four shots ring out around 8:30 p.m. and saw a van belonging to Mildred Vessel rolling backward into the ditch and a dark car hurrying away.

"We just can't believe it," Breaux said. "She was a real nice person. She'd watch the house and get our mail for us when we were gone."