Woman kills pastor, mother then herself following Sunday school at Atlanta Church

Jet, Oct 20, 2003

Police and worshippers were left searching for answers after authorities said a woman opened fire at her Atlanta church and killed the minister, her mother and herself.

At JET press time, no motive was given for the triple shooting at Turner Monumental A.M.E. Church in the Kirkwood neighborhood on the city's east side.

Church members said Shelia W. Chaney Wilson, 43, was agitated when she came to the church early that morning to help prepare for the church's upcoming 104th anniversary celebration. Police said Wilson killed her mother, 67-year-old Jennie Mae Robinson, and the Rev. Johnny Clyde Reynolds before she turned the gun on herself.

Just a short time earlier, Wilson and her mother met briefly with Reynolds, 62, in the main sanctuary after Sunday school.

"After the pastor greeted the suspect and was walking away from the suspect, apparently the suspect shot the pastor from behind," Atlanta police spokesman Sgt. John Quigley said.

Police believe Wilson then shot her mother once in the head and turned the gun on herself. Two other women were in the sanctuary at the time, 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, entered the sanctuary and found the three bodies on the floor.

Worshippers who knew Wilson said she was disturbed and that "something set her off." Geraldine Andrews, Reynolds' daughter-in-law and a friend of Wilson's family, said Robinson had recently taken Wilson out of a mental health facility. Church member Debra Mitchell said Wilson showed up infrequently to church and that she hadn't seen her for about three weeks before the shooting. 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.

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