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The man accused of killing his wife and
then shooting two church pastors had pleaded guilty and been
sentenced to 10 years of probation in 1987 in the slaying of a
previous wife, according to court records.
Jeremiah Fogle, 57, is charged with murder and attempted murder
after Sunday's shootings. Authorities said Fogle shot his wife,
Theresa, burst into the front doors of the church and shot the
ministers before church members tackled him.
According to the Highlands County Clerk of courts, Fogle pleaded
guilty to a manslaughter charge in the death of a previous wife.
An affidavit from that killing states that Fogle answered the
door holding a rifle and showed an Avon Park police officer the
body of his wife. His stepson told investigators he heard Fogle
call an ambulance and say he shot someone and wanted to kill
himself.
Fogle was to appear in court Monday on the most recent charges.
Authorities and relatives said he and Theresa Fogle had been
members of the Greater Faith Christian Center Church before
starting their own ministry out of their home.
Derrick Foster, a teacher at Greater Faith, told The Associated
Press he heard gunfire and screams before he and another man
tackled Fogle.
"The first thing in my mind was, `I have to take this gun
away,"' said Foster, who was among the 20 or so people at the
Sunday service at Greater Faith Christian Center Church.
Foster saw the man near the pulpit, turning around with the gun
in his hand.
"He had a great grip on the gun," Foster said. "My plan was,
as soon as he hit the floor, it would cause him to drop it. But he
didn't drop it."
He said it took three or four minutes of struggling with the
gunman before he finally wrested the weapon away.
The gunman had six rounds in his pocket. "He was prepared to
shoot even more," Sheriff Grady Judd said.
Pastor William Boss and associate pastor Carl Stewart were shot
from behind, authorities said. Boss, who was shot in the head, and
Stewart, shot three times in the back and ear. They remained
hospitalized early Monday.
Church member Anthony Hudson visited the pastors at the hospital
Monday and said both were in good spirits.
"Minister Stewart, I got to shake his hand and I saw him with
his eyes open and lit up. That made me feel real good to know he
was doing well," Hudson said.
No one else at the church was hurt.
Eva Henderson was talking on the phone in her driveway when she
heard gunshots across the street and watched panicked parishioners
running out of the church. Pastor Boss came around from the back
before collapsing out front. Church members rushed to his aid, she
said.
As deputies began investigating, a church member advised that
they check on Fogle's wife, who lived with him a block away in a
neighborhood of mobile homes, humble houses and industrial shops.
Investigators and relatives say 56-year-old Theresa Fogle was found
slain inside. They were married at Greater Faith in 2002.
"We don't know exactly why he went into this mad rage," Judd
said.
It was not immediately clear if Fogle had an attorney. Fogle,
with a white bandage around his head, refused to speak with
television reporters Sunday night as Polk County Sheriff's Office
detectives led him to a patrol car.
Theresa Fogle's sister Maria Beauford said the couple ran a
transportation business together. They had been members of Greater
Faith, but had started their own ministry out of their house and
regularly hosted Sunday services, Beauford said.
Beauford said she had never known Jeremiah Fogle to be violent
toward her sister. He had been sick over the past year and had back
surgery, and Theresa Fogle nursed him back to health, Beauford
said. She said her brother-in-law was always smiling at family
gatherings.
"We have no idea what his motive was," she said. "We just
have no idea."
Helen Harris said Fogle was recovering from an unknown surgery
and had seen him in a wheelchair recently. Her children often went
to his house to check on him.
"He was awesome. We just can't believe that he snapped like
that," said Harris, who lives near the church.