April 21, 1999
Prayer meeting shooting
brings churches together
___By Debbie Moore
___New Orleans Seminary
___GONZALES, La. (BP)--Blood-stained pews and flooring, together with the rancid smell of gunpowder and vivid memories of an evening filled with petrifying horror made the New St. John Baptist Church in Gonzales, La., an unsuitable place for a memorial service.
___In fact, church leaders said they never will use their building again.
___The pastor and members of neighboring First Baptist Church of Gonzales, a Southern Baptist church, thus opened their doors and hearts to the National Baptist congregation still in trauma from the carnage that occurred during their Wednesday night Bible study March 10.
___A young father, 22, known for his violent anger, had burst into thechurch near the beginning of the 7 p.m. service. He first shot two bullets straight up, then told everyone to get down as he headed deliberately to the front in search of his estranged wife. He found her on the fourth row.
___Within minutes, three people were killed and four others were wounded before the gunman, Shon Miller Sr., was shot and apprehended by police after fleeing the scene and hiding in a shed.
___"Daddy!" was the last word 2-year-old Shon Miller Jr. spoke before his father reportedly looked him in the eye and shot him dead as he sat with his mother, Carla Vessel Miller, 24. She too was shot and killed where she sat.
___Before arriving at the church, Miller killed his mother-in-law, Mildred Vessel, 53, in front of her home.
___Vessel had just arrived home after finishing her responsibilities at First Baptist Church, where she had been nursery director for more than 25 years, said Pastor Jim Law. Vessel's daughter, who worked with her mother in the nursery, drove directly from First Baptist to New St. John to attend the Bible study.
___The massacre will not soon be forgotten by members of the two churches, Law said. "An entire generation of children, including my own three children, was introduced to church life in the loving arms of this dear woman," he said about Vessel.
___More than 1,000 people attended a memorial service at First Baptist Church, and as many people who could find room to stand attended the dismissal service before the bodies were buried.
___While the event was a monumental tragedy, Law said he saw the memorial service as "a historical event for the community" as "walls have been taken down as we have shared together in this great loss of life. So many people here knew and loved Mildred and Carla."
___Many young people came forward to dedicate their lives to Christ during the March 15 service, Law said, noting two gang members laid their jackets on the altar and said, "We don't want this life anymore." A 19-year-old boy was one of the four people killed; he was shot in the head as he sat behind Carla Vessel Miller.
___The two men whom Miller had forced at gunpoint to drive him to both his mother-in-law's house and the church were able to get into the church and warn the pastor of what they thought was about to occur. But as the pastor left the sanctuary to call the police, Miller entered the church.
___The pastor was about to preach on a passage in the third chapter of the Gospel of John, he said. "I was going to tell people to be strong in these trying and strange times."
See related stories:
Counter random violence with acts of kindness, speakers urge Pastor's advice: Listen more than talk Chaplain: Caring carries high cost for caregivers Church must 'restore' community Two mothers found grace to forgive the men who killed their daughters
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