Man kills five in attack in chruch
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/2843551.html
By MARK F. BONNER AND DAMIANE RICKS
Advocate staff writer
Published: May 22, 2006
Police Chief Jeff LeDuff carries an infant Sunday at the Ardenwood Park Apartments, where the child was taken after a man opened fire at The Ministry of Jesus Christ church, fatally wounding four people before abducting the boy’s mother, whom the assailant shot to death at the apartment complex, authorities said.
Five relatives are dead after a 25-year-old gunman burst into a Sunday morning church service in north Baton Rouge, shooting several people before abducting his estranged wife and three children.
More than two hours later, the man drove to a nearby apartment complex and executed his wife, who was riding in the passenger seat of a getaway car, by shooting her in the head, a police affidavit says.
Baton Rouge Police found the assailant standing outside the vehicle and took him into custody without incident.
None of the children abducted with the woman were injured, police said.
Those killed, all of whom were related, were Leonard Howard, 78; his wife, 72-year-old Gloria Howard, both of 3133 Elgin St.; Dolores McGrew, 68, 3575 Donaldson Drive; Darlene Mills, 47, 6515 Hanks Drive; and the suspect’s wife, Erica Bell, 24, 2950 Elgin St., police said.
Police did not indicate how the victims were related.
The pastor of the church, 53-year-old Claudia Brown, who is the mother of Erica Bell, was in critical condition and was still in the hospital late Sunday after undergoing surgery.
Brown identified her attacker as her son-in-law Anthony Bell, 6840 Lacey Drive, who was later booked into Parish Prison on five counts of first-degree murder, one count attempted first-degree murder and one count second-degree kidnapping.
“This man, for whatever reason, woke up this morning and decided he was going to go on a rampage,” Police Chief Jeff LeDuff said.
“This will become one of the worst days in our city’s history. We will reel from this for a long time.”
The shooting spree began about 10 a.m. as morning service at The Ministry of Jesus Christ Church, located at 1935 Dallas Drive in a commercial business park, was wrapping up, said police spokesman Sgt. Charles Armstrong.
As worshippers faced the altar, Bell allegedly barreled into the small sanctuary and sprayed it with gunfire — shooting five, three of whom died at the church — before grabbing his wife and three children.
Two of the victims — Darlene Mills and Claudia Brown — were taken to area hospitals. Mills died at Baton Rouge General Medical Center-Mid City, Armstrong said.
At 10:30 a.m., police announced that two of Erica Bell’s older children had been recovered without injury from an Elgin Street residence about a mile away from the church.
For more than two hours Sunday, police had no idea where Anthony Bell was or the conditions of his hostages and asked the public for assistance in locating him as they scoured his last known addresses.
Housed in a multibusiness warehouse, the church shares wall space with a guitar workshop, but by noon the scene of the slayings was quiet, with only police and reporters milling about.
All that changed about 12:30 p.m., when police cruisers, reacting to a 911 phone call about shots fired from the nearby Ardenwood Park Apartments, peeled out of the warehouse district toward the complex.
Arriving at 650 N. Ardenwood Drive, about 1 mile from the church, LeDuff could be seen cradling an uninjured infant child, who was later identified as the last of the abducted children.
As dozens of residents looked on and rushed toward the front of the complex, police quickly cordoned off the scene with yellow police tape.
It was later revealed that police had arrested Anthony Bell and recovered the infant before discovering the body of Erica Bell inside a champagne-colored Nissan Maxima.
As the East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner’s Office prepared to remove Erica Bell’s body from the vehicle, LeDuff held an impromptu news conference in the heart of the apartment complex.
“This guy does not realize what he’s done — not only to a family, but to an entire community,” LeDuff said.
Detectives were working two murder scenes as LeDuff explained how police apprehended Bell in the sweltering parking lot.
When police arrived at the apartment complex, Anthony Bell was standing unarmed in the parking lot, crying as he held the infant boy, police said.
Officers were able to recover the child from Bell before arresting him without struggle.
Police later revealed that Anthony Bell had made the 911 call to police, reporting his wife committed suicide.
According to the affidavit, detectives found the crime scene was inconsistent with Bell’s statements and arrested and booked him for killing his wife.
Hours after his arrest, police detectives escorted a shirtless and handcuffed Bell out of the First District Headquarters annex on Plank Road to an awaiting car bound for Parish Prison. Bell said nothing to reporters and photographers, but stared defiantly at them before climbing into the car.
At press time, police were still investigating the incident but could not establish a motive for the shootings.
According to Clerk of Court records, Erica Bell filed for a temporary restraining order against Anthony Bell on Dec. 16, 2005, citing family violence. On Jan. 3, 2006, however, the restraining order was dismissed at Erica Bell’s request.
Many family members of Leonard and Gloria Howard gathered Sunday evening at their residence on Elgin Street. Irwin Howard, one of the victims’ sons, declined to comment on the shooting.
LeDuff said Bell’s children are now in the custody of child services.
Armstrong said detectives do not have any idea why Anthony Bell chose to come to the apartment complex because the suspect had never lived there.
Police do not have evidence that Anthony Bell had an address at the apartments.
Sunday’s incident is an eerie echo of another church shooting seven years ago in Ascension Parish.
In that case, Shon Miller Sr. shot and killed his mother-in-law, Mildred Vessel, 53, as she sat in her van in front of her Coon Trap Road home. He then burst into the New St. John Fellowship Church in Gonzales during Wednesday evening services on March 10, 1999. Opening fire on the congregants, he killed his wife, Carla Vessel Miller, 25; their son, Shon Jr., 2; and Vanario “Bubba” Jackson, 19, and wounded four other people. Carla Miller had earlier told her husband she intended to seek a divorce because he beat her, punctured the tires on her car and burned her mobile home, according to news accounts.
Shon Miller Sr., who was paralyzed from the waist down when he was accidentally shot by a sheriff’s deputy during his capture, was later sentenced to death after a jury convicted him on four counts of first-degree murder.
