Shooting victim reflects on church rampage

An injured victim of Sunday's church shooting rampage said the tragedy has shaken his support for the death penalty, even after an old friend was killed and three family members were wounded.

Hit by more than 20 shotgun pellets in the back, neck and head, 76-year-old Joe Barnhart said Wednesday he had always supported capital punishment.

But after the gunman attacked the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church on Sunday, killing two and wounding six, the retired college professor said the death penalty doesn't seem the answer for "this kind of evil."

If suspect Jim D. Adkisson, 58, is convicted, he should "never see the light of day in an orderly society" again, Barnhart said

"This murderer came in and just killed a woman he did not know, and probably had not met," he said. "It was not personal, it was wholly impersonal. He cared nothing for any of these people."

Adkisson is being held on $1 million bond on one count of first-degree murder - a crime that could carry the death penalty in Tennessee. He faces a preliminary hearing Aug. 5 and more charges are expected.

Barnhart's longtime friend, Linda Kraeger, 61, died in the attack. Barnhart convinced her to move back to his boyhood home of Knoxville last year after both retired from college teaching jobs in Texas. The two once wrote a book together and had long debated capital punishment.

"I believed in capital punishment, but not for revenge," Barnhart said.

But he said Kraeger warned that "once you start down the capital punishment road, you are going to make mistakes, and you will commit a killing that is unjust."

The argument made sense to him even then and he's come around: "She might be right."

Barnhart, dressed in a hospital gown and hooked to medical instruments, was by turns jovial and serious: Appreciative for the community's support and awed by the horror of what happened three days before.

The gunman entered the back of the sanctuary, where 200 people were watching a musical staged by 25 children, including Barnhart's 16-year-old granddaughter.

The Barnharts and Kraeger were seated near the door when "this man came in and there was this horrendous explosion. You knew it wasn't fireworks, but you didn't know what it was."

With the first of three shotgun blasts, Kraeger fell to the floor. Barnhart said he moved to help her and was wounded with the second or third blast. Daughter Linda Chavez received extensive wounds to her hands when she tried to block the shooter's view of her 6-year-old daughter sitting in her lap. Brother Jack Barnhart suffered wounds to his bladder, colon and back. His sister-in-law, Betty, had minor injuries.

The next thing Barnhart remembered was being carried out of the church and worked on by doctors in the hospital. "I was one of the lucky ones," he said.

Also killed was Greg McKendry, 60, an usher who died blocking a shotgun blast.

Police found a four-page letter written by Adkisson suggesting he targeted his ex-wife's former congregation out of hatred for its liberal policies, including its acceptance of gays.

"I wish this man had understood that most of us know we make mistakes and have learned from them," Barnhart said. "The liberals that I know are like the conservatives I know. They may criticize each other, but they don't go around shooting each other."