October 6, 1999
Church member shoots another in Fresno
___FRESNO, Calif. (ABP)--A member of a Southern Baptist church in Fresno, Calif., is charged with fatally shooting a fellow church member Sept. 29 as the victim helped prepare a Wednesday evening fellowship meal.
___Virgil Turner, 44, a well-liked member of First Southern Baptist Church, died at the scene of multiple gunshot wounds. Witnesses said Turner was helping in the church kitchen when the shooting occurred. No one else was injured.
___Fresno police identified the accused killer as Steven James Knee, 29, also a member of the church. Knee was arrested several hours after the shooting when police stopped his car for running a stop sign.
___A motive was not immediately established, but a witness said the two men argued before the shooting. A church member said Turner and Knee had been in conflict for some time but did not specify the nature of their dispute. Turner was unarmed.
___Holly Smith, a member of the church and news assistant for the California Southern Baptist newspaper, was just outside the church kitchen when the shooting occurred. Smith said Knee spoke to her as he entered the church fellowship hall and walked toward the kitchen.
___A short time later, Smith said, she heard one gunshot, then another, then several more in rapid succession.
___Smith said Knee then "walked calmly out of the building, dropped the gun in the grass, got in his car and drove away."
___Ed Kuffel, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church, was at the church office in another building when he learned of the shooting.
___"When I got there and walked into the kitchen, which is where Virgil was shot, his son, Scott, was cradling him in his arms. He died in Scott's arms," Kuffel said.
___The victim was a student at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. He enrolled in the seminary's diploma of theology program at the Southern California campus in Brea in 1998.Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!