Keith Kinnunen, the 43-year-old perpetrator of the shooting at West Freeway Church of Christ, had received help from the Texas church on “multiple” occasions before he carried out his attack on the congregation.
“We’ve helped him on several occasions with food,” minister Britt Farmer told the Christian Chronicle. “He gets mad when we won’t give him cash. He’s been here on multiple occasions.”
Church elder John Robertson said church security had been watching Kinnunen when he walked into the church. “This was (a case of) ‘maybe it’s nothing, but maybe it’s worth looking into,'” he said. “We had put him on isolation on one of the cameras back here so we could see that he was behaving at the moment.”
Security at the church was planning “an intervention” moments before Kinnunen pulled out his gun and opened fire, killing two church members. The attacker was killed by a single shot by church security team member Jack Wilson.
Kinnunen had a long criminal record, including aggravated assault charges with a deadly weapon in 2009 and theft a couple of years later. He walked into the church Sunday before the attack, wearing a fake beard and with the gun hidden underneath his clothing.
No motive has been assigned to Kinnunen, and the FBI is currently investigating.
