Knoxville Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV said this morning that the shooter, Jim Adkisson, hated liberals and gays and that he wrote a four-page letter in which he stated his 'hatred of the liberal movement.'

The letter, recovered from Adkisson's black 2004 Ford Escape, which was parked in the church's parking lot indicates he had been planning the shooting for about a week and that he planned to shoot until police shot him.

Officers recovered 76 shells for a 12-gauge, semiautomatic shotgun inside the church. Among those shells were three spent rounds. He had carried the shotgun inside the church in a guitar case. 'He certainly intended to take a lot of casualties,' Owen said.

Adkisson is accused of killing two people and injuring seven others. He is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Greg McKendry, 60, and of Linda Kraeger, 61.

Update: Out & About has an interview with eyewitness and survivor Carla Lewis:

From the sanctuary right entrance, I thought I hear yelling and a loud BOOM of an explosion. My mind tried to register the sound.  I was thinking, "Did a speaker explode?  Did I hear a prop gun?  Did something go wrong?" and as soon as that thought left my mind I smelled the sulfur from the gunpowder and heard another BOOM and then BOOM.  I left go of Jaime's hand and stepped around the corner just as John Bohstedt tackled the shooter.  Immediately two others were on top of him.

As he hit the ground shotgun shells went everywhere.  The gun landed upside down against a bag or some other object on the floor.  There was a shell halfway in the ejection port.  It didn't look spent.  He must have been trying to shove a shell straight into the chamber to take another shot.

It seemed like an eternity, but it was only a few seconds.  Jaime and I were grabbed by several church members and pulled into a room.  I opened the door to look out and someone yelled at me to get on the floor.  I couldn't.  I grabbed Jaime's hand and we went through the foyer and out the back door.

In the minutes leading up to when the police arrived Jaime and I saw children with escorts looking for their parents.  We saw children and adults with blood on their clothes.  We saw the worst side of human cruelty we had ever seen.  We knew people had been shot but we didn't know who.

We eventually gathered with the rest of the church family on a hill behind the sanctuary.  Most of the children were in safe hands at the Second Presbyterian Church next door.  While we were congregated together I noticed our friend.  She is a transgender youth.  She told us that Greg, her foster father, had been hit.  That really hit home.

Just two weeks earlier Greg McKendry and his wife Barbara and their trans-foster child were at our home celebrating Jaime's birthday.  I really liked Greg and to think someone could hurt him was very troubling.

The police gathered everyone together in the fellowship hall to tell us what to expect.  The police identified the types of witnesses they wanted and eventually dismissed everyone.  As Jaime and I stood by the door, Barbara McKendry came walking by.  She stopped to give both of us a hug and said, "Greg got hit.  He's dead."

Oh God!  My heart just broke and Jaime and I couldn't hold it together anymore.  How could this happen to group of people as loving as the members of TVUUC?  I needed an answer.  I had to know why.

Today, we found out why when some of the contents of the killer's letter were revealed.  A supposed hatred for the liberal establishment and "gays".  Yes, TVUUC, embraced gays and the entire GLBT community.  Jaime is the president of PFLAG which meets at TVUUC, and a group of local transgender people and I had just started a new organization which meets at TVUUC.  As a matter of fact, Jaime and I met at TVUUC in October 1999, at a transgender support group at TVUUC.

Last update: 01-29-2009 20:33