Homeless man shot 2 at Maryland church, then killed himself

Police: Homeless man shot 2 at Maryland church
By DAVID DISHNEAU
Associated Press

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (AP) - A disgruntled homeless man fatally shot a secretary and critically wounded a priest in the office of a Maryland Episcopal church after he was turned away from the food bank because of his increasingly aggressive behavior, police said Friday.

After killing Brenda Brewington, 59, and wounding the Rev. Mary-Marguerite Kohn, 62, Douglas F. Jones killed himself with the handgun in the woods where he lived near St. Peter's Episcopal Church, about 14 miles west of Baltimore, police said.

"He's been described as argumentative and belligerent, and at some point they asked him to leave and not return. If there was a motive here, we believe that may have contributed in some way," Howard County Police Department spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn said.

Brewington, of Ellicott City, was pronounced dead Thursday evening at the church after a custodian discovered the scene and called police.

Kohn, of Halethorpe, remained in critical condition Friday afternoon at Shock Trauma in Baltimore, according to police and hospital officials. She had been co-rector of the parish since 2009 and associate rector since 2003.

The incident provoked grief, anger and prayerful reflection at the opening Friday of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland's two-day annual convention in Hunt Valley, said the Right Rev. Eugene T. Sutton, bishop of Maryland.

He said the anger was directed at a society that would let a deranged man have a handgun.

"How is it that someone as mentally unstable, and who is on the edge, mentally, how does he get a gun to wreak that havoc?" Sutton said. "And of course, it's very painful for us that that violence happened in a holy place."
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