Accidental Shooting at Florida Church
Posted by Todd Rhoades in Current Events on Feb 13th, 2012 | 15 commentsAccording to FoxNews, members of a Florida church are praying for the recovery of their pastor’s daughter who was accidentally shot in the head at the church on Sunday.
A small group of church members were gathered at the hospital to pray for 20-year-old Hannah Grace Kelley, who was shot in the head Sunday afternoon at the Grace Connection Church in St. Petersburg, Fla., MyFoxOrlando.com reported.
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office was called to the church at about 12:24 p.m. on Sunday.
Investigators say Moises Zambrana took two men into a nearby closet to show his gun to another church member interested in buying a firearm. Zambrana has a concealed weapons permit and reportedly took out the gun’s magazine, but did not know there was a bullet in the chamber.
The gun went off and fired through a wall, striking the young woman. She was critically injured and transported to Bayfront Medical Center.
Approximately 40 people were in the area at the time of the incident, according to the station.
No charges have been filed. The investigation is ongoing.
“As you know, our precious daughter Hannah was a victim of a tragic, accidental gunshot wound to her head,” her father, Pastor Tim Kelley, reportedly wrote on the church’s Facebook page. “She remains in very critical condition, the prognosis is not good. Please pray the swelling … goes down in her brain.”
15 Responses to “ “Accidental Shooting at Florida Church”
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I can’t believe this is considered accidental! I think bringing a gun into church is not an accidental action! I think the man having the gun should be held in custody intil the truth is discovered !
This whole thing stink’s to high heaven!!
Of course it is considered accidental! It was in fact, an accident. Although bringing a firearm to church is foolish, I find my heart breaking for everyone involved: including the man who fired the weapon. It’s amazing what a catastrophe can happen on a lapse of judgement.
Lord knows there’s plenty of times I have done foolish things that could have potentially gone very south.
My prayers are with everyone involved.
Handgun hell comes to the church. Why?
Bringing a loaded gun into church is certainly not the smartest thing to do, but in no way was this a purposeful action. Accidental pure and simple. But really, couldn’t you have waited until after church out in the parking lot or met somewhere where it could be test fired when you showed it to someone? C’mon man!
I pray for the man who brought the gun as well as this precious child who suffered a very serious wound to her head. What a thing for both to live with. And I pray she lives.
WHERE has common sense gone? DON’T bring handguns to church, stupid.
While doing a transaction in church was unwise and devastating – we live in a world where people are threatening pastors and churches more and more often. As a pastor I have had death threats from people who were mentally unstable stating that they were going to kill me in service the next day.
While I don’t condone turning church into a gun shop – defending oneself and congregation has become necessary.
Yes, our church has a security team as well. They do carry concealed weapons and they are very smart about how they conduct themselves. They are professional and they do not just look for any arbitrary reason to pull their weapon. As church pastors, we are at least partly responsible for people’s safety when they are at our services and with the rise of threats and intentional church shootings we would be foolish to not have a plan in place.
God bless America and its freedom to accidentally shoot someone in church.
The guy doesn’t need our condemnation – he needs our prayers for him and his daughter. He is already condemning himself for than all of us combined could hope to do.
So how about showing some mercy and saving your condemnation – maybe having this discussion if and when the daughter survives. If she does not, we won’t need to heap any more condemnation on him.
Oops – I thought the pastor was the one with the gun.
This doesn’t change anything I said about showing mercy to the guy…
Absolutely tragic.
Depending on who you talk to, there are between 3-5 basic rules of owning/operating a firearm. This is the 5 that I tend to hold to…(ALL 5 rules were broken in this case)
1. Treat every firearm as if it were loaded.
2. Never allow the muzzle to point at anything you are not willing to see destroyed.
3. Be sure of your target and know what lies behind it.
4. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are aligned on target.
5. Be sure your guns are never accessible to unauthorized or untrained individuals.
and I should also mention that I don’t think carrying a concealed weapon to church is necessarily wrong (it’s perfectly legal in Florida where this happened), but pulling it out and allowing someone else to hold it while on the premise is foolish. -I’m sure the two responsible are now well aware of their mistake, whether or not charges are brought.
Lots of people in our church carry a concealed handgun. In fact, our church sponsors concealed handgun classes several times a year!
The young lady passed away today (Saturday). Let’s lay down the negative comments about the guy with the gun and pray for the family of the girl.
You can continue to discuss the merits of firearms another day, but let’s give this one a rest for a while out of respect for the family, okay?
What a tragic story. Let’s pray for all affected, especially the pastor and the congregation.