Victim's family has no bitterness over shooting

ATLANTA -- Friends and family of the Atlanta minister fatally shot at his church say they hold no bitterness for the woman who opened fire shortly before Sunday service, killing him and her mother before committing suicide.

Church members said Shelia W. Chaney Wilson, 43, seemed agitated when she came to Turner Monumental AME Church early Sunday morning to help prepare for its upcoming 104th anniversary celebration. Police said Wilson pulled out a gun and fatally shot the Rev. Johnny Clyde Reynolds and her mother, 67-year-old Jennie Mae Robinson, before killing herself.

"There were three lives lost yesterday, and the Wilson family and the Robinson family are grieving as much as we are," said Reynolds' goddaughter Samia Giddings, who spoke on behalf of the family Monday.

"Nobody's really angry," she said. "You can't really be angry about this sort of thing."

Police continued to search for a motive Monday, although family members said it was unlikely they would ever find a reason for the three deaths.

"We don't understand it, and we're full of questions. However, the answers -- if there were to be any -- left with Shelia," Giddings said.

Police said Wilson and her mother met briefly with Reynolds, 62, in the church's main sanctuary after Sunday school, as they were preparing the altar for communion.

Reynolds was walking away after greeting the two women, when Wilson pulled out a .44-caliber handgun and shot him from behind, said police spokesman Sgt. John Quigley.

Police believe Wilson then shot her mother once in the head and turned the gun on herself.

Two other women were in the sanctuary, Quigley said. Once the first shot was fired, one of the women fled the room, while the other took cover behind a pulpit.

Quigley said an assistant pastor heard the shots and entered the sanctuary to find the three bodies on the floor.

Worshippers familiar with Wilson, who had two young daughters and a son, said she had a history of mental problems.

According to Wilson's family, she recently had been released from a five- or six-week stay at a mental hospital, Giddings said Monday.

Church member Debra Mitchell said she did not know a motive for the shooting, but said many knew Wilson to have an unstable personality and that she recently lost her job.

"We knew she had some instability, but we didn't know it was this deep," Mitchell said.

None of Wilson's friends and family knew where she got the gun used in the shootings, Giddings said.

The church remained closed indefinitely Monday, as the sanctuary was being cleaned and officials tried to decide where this Sunday's service would he held. Families of the three had not yet finalized funeral arrangements.

Reynolds, who became pastor of Turner Monumental about nine years ago, had been an elder in the church for more than 30 years.

"He exemplified the utmost in integrity, honesty and goodness," Giddings said. "The calling on his life to preach God's word was the center of his life."