Police have arrested and charged a 26-year-old Alabama woman with the murder of a pastor’s wife after a stray bullet killed her while she was attending a church Bible study.
Police in Prichard, Mobile County have arrested the suspect, Kaillyn Christine Howard Harris, accused of firing the shot that killed Grace Carter, 65, wife of a Sunlight Missionary Baptist Church pastor , reported Fox 10.
Grace Carter was inside Everlasting Life Holiness Church on Tuesday night when she was shot in the chest.
“I just don’t think people should be shooting in places where you don’t know where a stray bullet might go,” said the victim’s husband, Cecil Carter, who is an elected pastor at a separate church.
Police said they went to church after 7 p.m. and started CPR on the victim but were unable to resuscitate him, WKRG reported.
An investigator noticed a bullet hole in a church door and discovered that she had been shot in the upper right part of her chest.
“The shooting in the church was really heartbreaking for us last night,” Prichard Police Lt. Robert Martin said. “Every time someone is killed in our jurisdiction or in any municipality, it hits the offices with real compassion, and we are really sick of it.”
Cecil Carter lost his wife while he waited to be installed as a pastor at the church. “She was really looking forward to it,” he said of his 35-year-old wife. “She was very proud” of him, he continued. “But right now, the emptiness of his absence for the installation is going to be difficult for me.”
He added: “Right now I get strength knowing that God is able and knowing that my wife is in a better place with the Lord. And there is no doubt that she loved the Lord. I have to so be strong for her, and myself, and for my family, my children and all.”
It is the third homicide in the city since Christmas Eve, according to media reports.
“It’s more of a retirement community. I’ve been here at night, no gunfire, nothing. So it’s a big shock to hear,” a neighbor said. “It’s sad and I hate that this happened to the church. Like I said, it’s a quiet neighborhood and I’ve met the neighbors, they’re good people, old-fashioned people.”
Police said the incident does not appear to be an intentional shooting.
