After Antioch Church Shooting, Calls To Remember The Victims And Keep Doors Open

Mayor Megan Barry urged Nashville to remember the victims and to resist the urge for vengeance as police search for the answers behind this weekend’s shooting at Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Antioch.

Speaking Monday at a prayer service at Woodland Hill Church of Christ, Barry admitted there are many questions surrounding the shooting — including the gunman’s motives and how he came to have a gun — but those shouldn’t be the focus.

“We might never have some of these answers,” she said. “Sometimes human actions simply escape human understanding, and that is why we call on a higher power.”

Police say 25-year-old Emanuel Samson killed one woman and wounded seven others during services on Sunday. Samson, who was also injured, is believed to be a one-time member of the congregation.

Samson had worked as an unarmed security guard but was not licensed to carry a handgun, police say. He’d threatened to commit suicide in recent months, prompting a welfare check by Murfreesboro Police.

But police say they still do not know what prompted him to kill 39-year-old Melanie Crow Smith in the parking lot and to open fire on congregants as they gathered inside for Sunday services.

‘It means planning.’

The fatal shooting has prompted some discussion about how congregations can keep themselves safe during services.

It used to be that “church security” meant locking up doors at night to keep out thieves, says Frank Stevenson, pastor of City of Grace Church. Now it’s about a lot more.

“It means planning,” he said. “It means being proactive. It means making sure that you’re doing those things that are necessary to be prepared for a worst-case scenario. But at the same time, we’re going to be a very welcoming place.”

Incidents like this weekend’s shooting, as well as the 2015 shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston and a 2008 shooting at a Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville have highlighted the possibility of violence.

Stevenson, who organized the prayer service, says he’s taken part in a training led by Metro Police in the past couple of years. But he says preparedness does not mean being unwelcoming. A “healthy balance” has to be struck.

“We want churches to be a place where people can enjoy the presence of God and connecting,” he said. “And we’re not going to let this incident take away from that. … We’re not scared but we are cautious.”