Shooter Opens Fire in Missouri Church, Killing 3

Gunman held 25 to 50 people hostage before surrendering to police
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 12, 2007 5:49 PM CDT
Shooter Opens Fire in Missouri Church, Killing 3
A Missouri State Trooper enters the First Congregational Church in Neosho, Mo., Monday, Aug. 13, 2007. A gunman opened fire in the southwest Missouri church Sunday, killing three people and wounding several others, authorities said. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)   (Associated Press)

An unidentified gunman killed 3 and wounded several in a church in southwest Missouri today. The AP reports that he briefly held 25 to 50 churchgoers hostage at the First Congregational Church in Neosho, Missouri before being arrested. Police say that an incident between the shooting suspect and a family that attends the mostly Latino church motivated the killing.

"He stormed in during the service and started shooting," a city spokeswoman said, adding that the gunman wounded fewer than 10 others in the rampage. He is said to have talked to a hostage negotiator for several minutes before being apprehended by police and taken to a county jail. Officials have refused to identify any of the victims. (More Missouri stories.)

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