It was a quiet part of the Father's Day Mass as about 300 people
stood up in preparation for communion. A parishioner, known by many at
the church as Ricky Jennings, entered through the glass doors in back,
holding his wife Cheryl's hand.
Seconds later, police say Jennings
fired a single shot at the back of Cheryl's father's head, nearly
killing him. The loud bang pierced the silence, sending people diving
for cover beneath pews and the priest behind the altar.
"It was
echoing in my head so loud," said Rebecca Ory Hernandez, who was only a
few feet away with her 5-year-old son. She grabbed the boy, threw him
under the pew and got on top of him. She heard the pastor blurt out an
expletive into his microphone. "I was waiting for another gunman," she
said.
The shooter ran from the church, the pastor and a half dozen
other men close on his heels. Ory Hernandez and other parishioners went
to James Evans. They used scarves and a shirt to help soak up the
blood, and she cradled his head. His wife, Tara, who had been standing
next to him, and others prayed.
"I'm OK, I'm OK," Evans kept saying, as blood spilled from his mouth.
Meanwhile,
Charles Richard Jennings Jr., 35, stole a truck from a nearby neighbor
at gunpoint and led police on a highway chase, police said. He was
caught hours later on foot after the truck ran out of gas.
Jennings
was formally charged Tuesday with attempted murder, court records show.
The Weber County attorney also charged him with two counts each of
attempted burglary and attempted robbery and possession of a firearm by a
restricted person.
As police try to determine why Jennings shot
his father-in-law — police think he may have been drinking or on drugs
and say the couple had a history of domestic disputes — the family is
grateful for a small miracle.
Evans, who turns 66 on Tuesday, was
struck at the side of his head, the bullet going through near his ear
and out his cheek and missing his brain, said Dr. Barbara Kerwin, the
director of the intensive care unit at McDay-Dee Hospital in Ogden.
"He
turned his head just at the right time," his wife said Monday, crying
at a hospital news conference. "If didn't turn his head, he would have
been hit in the back of the head and he would have been dead."
He
was in critical condition Monday but doctors say he's expected to live,
although he'll need reconstructive surgery and rehab to learn to swallow
and speak again, Kerwin said. He was awake Monday, nodding yes and no,
writing and using hand signals to communicate.
Court records show
Jennings has a criminal record going back to 1996, when he pleaded no
contest to several traffic-related misdemeanors. Over the years, he's
pleaded no contest to felony charges of failing to yield to police and
attempting to receive a stolen vehicle, and misdemeanor charges for
traffic violations, criminal trespassing and theft. He's also pleaded
guilty to theft charges and a felony charge of attempting to tamper with
a witness or juror.
Authorities don't expect to file any charges
against Jennings' wife. She was not at Monday's news conference with her
mother and another sister at the McDay-Dee Hospital in Ogden. It's not
clear whether she knew her husband had the gun, or what she did after he
shot her father Sunday.
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