NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - A man who opened fire inside a church, killing two people with a shotgun hidden in a guitar case, was frustrated at being unable to find a job and blamed liberals and gays, police said on Monday.
"It appears that what brought him to this horrible eventwas his lack of being able to obtain a job, his frustrationover that, and his stated hatred of the liberal movement,"Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen told reporters of Sunday'sincident at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church.
Suspect Jim Adkisson, 58, who was being held on $1 million(500,000 pounds) bond, had previously worked as a mechanicalengineer in several states. He described his violent plans in afour-page letter found at his home, which also explained thathis age and "liberals and gays" taking jobs had worked againsthim.
Another recent setback was that Adkisson's allotment ofgovernment-issued food stamps had been reduced, Owen said.
The church outside Knoxville, Tennessee, where some 200people were watching a children's play at the time, had been inthe news recently for its "liberal stance," Owen said.
Adkisson did not appear to belong to any organized groupsand had no immediate family, Owen said. He did not appear to betargeting anyone, though he may have avoided shooting atchildren, he said.
Adkisson purchased the 12-gauge shotgun from a pawn shopabout a month ago and brought it into the church inside aguitar case, Owen said. Police found 76 shotgun shells, alongwith another gun belonging to the suspect.
"I don't think he expected to leave there alive, and wereit not for the hasty actions of some of the other people in thesanctuary there may have been more fatalities," Owen said.
The suspect fired three blasts before being subdued bycongregants.
Killed was Greg McKendry, 60, a church member whoapparently stood in front of the gunman and shielded othersfrom a shotgun blast. Linda Kraeger, 61, among seven others whowere wounded, died a few hours later.
There have been several church shootings in the UnitedStates in the past few years, including a 24-year-old man witha grudge against Christians who attacked a missionary trainingcentre and a megachurch in Colorado in December, killing fourpeople before being wounded and killing himself.
(Reporting by Andrew Stern; Editing by Michael Conlon andJackie Frank)
