August 15, 2007

Associate pastor, who ministered to Micronesian congregation, among the dead

NEOSHO, MISSOURI -- Prosecutors on Monday filed three murder charges against a man accused of opening fire inside of a church, killing three people and wounding five other members of a mostly Micronesian congregation.

The Associated Press (AP) reports that prosecutors also charged the man, Eiken Elam Saimon, 52, of Newton County, with assault, felonious restraint for holding the congregation hostage, and armed criminal action. A fifth charge of assault was pending, Newton County Prosecutor Scott Watson said.

Authorities earlier said the suspect, from Micronesia, had targeted elders of the congregation. He opened fire during a Sunday afternoon service.

Saimon also is a suspect in the alleged sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl on Saturday, Watson said. That girl is a relative of Saimon's, although authorities did not specify how the two were related.

Saimon was being held on $5 million bond and was to be arraigned Monday afternoon in Newton County Circuit Court, the AP said.

CNN had earlier reported that a gunman burst into a church in southwestern Missouri where his relatives were praying and opened fire on Sunday, killing three people and wounding at least five, authorities said.

"He stormed in during the service and started shooting," said Desiree Bridges, a public information officer for the town of Neosho, about 15 miles south of Joplin.

Two worshippers and an assistant pastor were killed, Police Chief Dave McCracken told CNN. The Associated Press identified the slain pastor as Rev. Kernal Rehobson, 44.

Rehobson led a group of predominantly Micronesian group of worshippers for around 15 years at First Congregational church and also ran a Micronesian store out of his house in Goodman, Missouri.

According to CNN, the wounded were transported to area hospitals by ground and air, Bridges said. Video from outside the church showed at least one person carried away on a stretcher.

McCracken said one of the wounded was undergoing surgery and two others are in the hospital. All are expected to recover, he said.

The Newton County 911 Center received a call at 1:54 p.m. (2:54 p.m. ET) saying that someone was shooting in the First Congregational Church, Bridges said.

According to CNN, at the time of the shootings, a group of Pacific Islanders was holding a service at the church. McCracken said the gunman is also a Pacific Islander and is related to some of the people at the service, including "some of the victims."

The gunman carried three weapons -- including a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol -- and held those in the room hostage, McCracken said.

Apparently the gunman asked the children in the room to leave, without their parents, and they did, said McCracken. All are unharmed and accounted for, he said.

When police arrived, the shooter was holding between 25 and 50 people hostage inside the church, Bridges told CNN. After a negotiator spoke with the shooter for five to 10 minutes, police apprehended him, she said.

The suspect, who had not been publicly identified at the time of the CNN report, is in custody at Newton County jail, McCracken said at the time.

In an interview with CNN late Sunday, McCracken said the witness was "not cooperating."

"We do have numerous witnesses, however," he added.

The police chief did not say what the motive is believed to be, but he said authorities are pursuing "a couple of leads."

McCracken told the AP that an incident involving the suspect and a family from the church occurred the day before the shooting.

First Congregational Church is a Latino congregation but opens its doors to other groups and some 10,500 people live in Neosho, which is about 250 miles west-southwest of St. Louis, Missouri.

"This is a terrible tragedy which was made worse by the fact that it happened in a peaceful place of faith and worship," Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt said in a statement.

© 2007 ASSIST News Service, used with permission