Murder in church

last updated 8 January 2015

Detroit

A man opened fire with a sawed-off shotgun in a Detroit church this week, killing the mother of his ex-girlfriend and injuring a 9-year-old girl, police said. Witnesses identified the gunman as Kevin Lorenzo Collins, 22. Collins allegedly wanted revenge against his former girlfriend, Jamika Javette Williams, who had refused to marry him. When he couldn’t find her, witnesses said, Collins shot and killed her mother, Rosetta Williams, before firing at the pulpit and running away. Police said Collins then tried to hijack a car and killed a man who attempted to stop him. Collins later committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest. “If you can do something like this in a church,” said Connie Minter, a relative of Rosetta Williams, “you’re pure evil.”