Minister: Texas gunman grew angry in past over cash requests
Church shooter’s past reveals troubling episodes
DALLAS — The man who fatally shot two people at a Texas church was ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial in 2012 and was repeatedly fed by the congregation but got angry when church officials refused to give him money, according to court records and the pastor.
It’s unclear whether Keith Thomas Kinnunen’s extensive criminal record and psychological history would have barred him from legally buying the shotgun he used during Sunday’s attack at the West Freeway Church of Christ in the Fort Worth-area town of White Settlement.
Kinnunen, 43, shot worshippers Richard White and Anton “Tony” Wallace in the sanctuary before a member of the church’s volunteer security team shot and killed him, according to police and witnesses.
Minister Britt Farmer told The Christian Chronicle that he recognized Kinnunen after seeing a photo of him without the fake beard, wig, hat and long coat he wore as a disguise to the service. Kinnunen visited the congregation several other times this year and was given food but denied money, the minister said.
“We’ve helped him on several occasions with food,” Mr. Farmer said in the interview. “He gets mad when we won’t give him cash.”
Authorities have said Kinnunen’s motive remains under investigation, and they declined to comment on how he obtained the gun he used, though a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said it had successfully traced the weapon.
Court records portray Kinnunen as being deeply troubled long before Sunday’s attack.
In 2012, a district judge in Oklahoma ruled him mentally incompetent to stand trial and ordered him committed to a psychiatric facility for treatment.
Kinnunen was charged with felony assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after he attacked the owner of a Chickasha, Okla., doughnut shop in 2011, court records state. He was separately charged with arson that year after allegedly starting a fire in a cotton field by tying tampons soaked in lamp oil to the crop.
Earlier on the day of that fire, Kinnunen soaked a football in the accelerant, lit it on fire and then threw it back and forth with his son, who was a minor, according to the arrest affidavit. The boy told police he was afraid his father would get mad if he asked to stop.
A forensic psychologist who examined him in 2012 for both cases wrote that “Kinnunen currently evidences signs that are consistent with a substantial mental illness and that meet the inpatient criteria of a ‘person requiring treatment.’”
Records show that Kinnunen was found competent to stand trial in February 2013. Both criminal cases were ultimately reduced to misdemeanors, to which he pleaded guilty.
Seconds after Kinnunen opened fire in the church Sunday, Jack Wilson, a 71-year-old firearms instructor, shot him once in the head.
The actions of Mr. Wilson and other armed churchgoers quickly drew praise from some Texas lawmakers and gun-rights advocates. Texas officials hailed the state’s gun laws, including a measure enacted this year that affirmed the right of licensed handgun holders to carry a weapon inside places of worship unless a facility bans them.