Texas Church Shooting Leaves Pastor Dead, Two Injured

A church shooting in Texas resulted in a dead pastor and two other wounded people. 

The authorities reported the incident happened on Sunday, at Stairrville Methodist Church in Winona. 

Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith told the press that pastor Mark McWilliams (62) and his wife saw the attacker, Mytrez Woolen (21), while he was hiding in the bathroom and demanded him to lay on the ground. However, Woolen attacked the pastor and shot him with his gun.  

The pastor’s wife was wounded when she fell on the floor while she was running away from the crime scene.

According to Sheriff Smith, Mytrez Woolen also injured a church visitor in his back while the man was fleeing from the place. Currently, the victim’s condition is unknown.

After the shooting, the suspect stole pastor McWilliams’s truck attempting to drove away from the crime scene, however, the police arrested him in the Harrison County neighborhood. 

Sheriff Smith said that Woolen could face charges of capital murder alongside some other crimes.

The records of Smith County jail show the suspect was released in the place of $3.5 million bonds.

Sheriff Smith explained that the incident happened after a manhunt and high-speed chase earlier on Sunday. 

Mytrez Woolen, who was a suspect in two drive-by shootings in  Marshall city, ran away from the police officers with a Volkswagen Jetta at a speed of 120 mph. After one of the car tires gave out, the suspect crashed near the church and hid in the forest nearby.

Woolen got back to the church on Sunday morning, when the incident with the pastor and the churchgoers occurred. 

At this point, the suspect’s alleged motives for committing the crime remain unclear.