Someone killed three people and wounded several others in a Neosho church shooting today, the Newton County Sheriff’s Office said.
Authorities said they received a call at 1:54 p.m. saying someone was shooting inside First Congregational Church, 115 N. Wood St. The caller also reported someone was shot.
Officers secured the scene and negotiated with a suspect, who was arrested and taken to the Newton County Jail, the sheriff’s office said.
Several people were transported to a hospital by air and ground, the office said. Officials did not have an exact number, only stating that there were “under 10” wounded.
The shootings reportedly occurred in the church sanctuary before officers arrived.
The office declined to release the names of the suspect or victims or any additional information about them late this afternoon.
Reactions from members of the community, via The Neosho Daily News:
Chris Gray, an emergency medical technician with Freeman Ambulance, and another EMT, Katy Edsell, treated two of the injured in the basement of Sam's Cellar, a restaurant and bar located on the corner of Wood and Spring streets about a block away from the incident. He said a male between 40 and 45 years of age suffered a gunshot wound to the head, and a 78-year-old woman had a gunshot wound to the left arm.
About 17 witnesses and others were brought to Sam's Cellar until deputies with the Newton County Sheriff's Department could question them about the incident.
Suzi Howsmon, owner of Sam's Cellar, was inside the bar and grill going over her books at the time of the incident.
"I was doing the books when my son Blake pulled in and said 'Mom, are you OK?' and I said 'Yeah, what are you talking about?'" she said. "They started bringing witnesses in and a lot of the women didn't have shoes on. They walked from the church to our back door - about 150 feet - across that hot parking lot. They had blisters, bloody feet. One of the elderly women actually collapsed, she had blisters on her feet. One lady had a bullet wound through her forearm, and another gentleman - I don't know if it was a graze or not - but he had a bullet wound in the back of his head."
Howsmon opened the business and distributed ice water to about 25 people. Gray and Edsell arrived shortly afterward with EMT kits and began treating the wounded. The two with bullet wounds were transported to area hospitals, Gray said, while the others were loaded into a Special Response Team vehicle belonging to the Newton County Sheriff's Department.
"Some of them were like, 17 or 20 years old, and were really emotional," Howsmon said. "They were just hysterical from just witnessing that. What we did was open up to get them out of the heat more than anything."
Horrible.
We will bring you more when we get it.
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