One killed, eight injured in mass shooting at Church of Christ in Tennessee
One person is dead and eight others are injured after…
‘God, I’m sorry for things I didn’t do right’
Minister Joey Spann recalls his prayer in the moments after Tennessee church shooting
The Tennessean interviewed Joey Spann, minister for the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Antioch, Tenn., from his hospital room after the mass shooting that left him seriously injured and killed a member of his congregation.
The newspaper reports:
Joey Spann
Minister Joey Spann expected to die.
He lay bleeding, collapsed on the floor of Burnette Chapel Church of Christ, and watched the masked man who had just shot him in the chest and hand walk farther into the church.
“The shots kept going,” Spann said. “I thought he was going to kill everybody.”
The gunfire stopped. But Spann, who leads the small congregation in Antioch, still thought he was dying. So the minister prayed.
He didn’t pray to be saved by the church members who applied pressure to his wounds. He didn’t pray to be saved as he heard them call 911. He prayed for forgiveness.
“God, I’m sorry for things I didn’t do right,” Spann said in a telephone interview from his hospital room.
Read the full story.
Spann later spoke to media at a news conference. He outlined what he remembered from the Sunday incident, even joking that “the preaching was real good that day.” (He was the preacher.)
Spann became emotional as he recalled his thoughts about his family after he was shot.
“My wife cried out, ‘Joey, Joey!’ and I said, ‘Honey, he’s killed me,'” the minister said. “I said, ‘I’m dying and I’m sorry.'”
See the full interview, shared by Nashville’s NewsChannel 5 here:
Meanwhile, the Burnette Chapel church has released memorial information for Melanie Crow, the 38-year-old church member who died in the attack.
Hundred attended a Monday night candlelight vigil outside the Burnette Chapel building.
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