Shon Miller

 VICTIMS: 4

As I'm such a lazy bastard I've decided that I'll just steal all of this stuff from a few newspaper articles. It saves me time, and you still get the full story, so we both win.

I'll begin by giving a brief bit of background on Shon Miller. He was a wife beater who had been arrested quite a few times for this action but, as in so many cases, his wife refused to have charges laid against him. But she did kick him out of the house and get a restraining order put out against him. But as you will soon find out - that didn't seem to help. So enough of my crap, let's get to the story.

The first to die was Mildred Vessel, 53, his mother-in-law. Two acquaintances from Belle Rose met Miller in Donaldsonville and agreed to give him a ride to his wife's house at 40199 Coon Trap Road, just north of the Gonzales city limits, telling the two men he wanted to pick up something.

As they arrived at the house, Vessel was pulling her van into the driveway. Miller, whose last known address was 1000 Toby Ave., got out of the car and fired five shots into the van, killing his mother-in-law with three direct hits to the head.

The two Belle Rose men, who investigators declined to identify, tried to leave when Miller fired into the van, but their car stalled. Miller then forced them to drive him to the church about one-half mile away.

The two men went into the small church packed with about 60 to 70 people. They sat next to Donald Ray Smith, a brother-in-law of Carla Miller.

"They said they needed to talk to the pastor," Smith said. "They were real fidgety. They were real vague and I really wasn't sure what they were talking about."

Smith said one of the men told him, "You just don't understand, you don't understand. We need to get out of here. This guy is dangerous. We need to get out of here."

The Rev. Clarence Stephens, pastor of the church, was summoned and listened to the men. He then asked church Deacon Herbert Mulberry to call the police.

Stephens and Mulberry went into the church office to make the call. According to police records, it was 7:43 p.m. when the call came in.

"When I was on the phone with the lady on 911 it started," Mulberry said.

"It" was two shots fired into the ceiling.

Miller pumped two rounds into the ceiling and "told everybody to lie on the floor. Then he started shooting people," another minister, the Rev. Wilbert Holmes said.

Upon hearing the shots, Miller's son, Shon Jr., 2, turned around and said, "Daddy!" Holmes said.

Miller shot his wife, Carla Vessel Miller, 25, first and his son second, killing them both, Wiley and Landry said. Miller then shot Vaniaro Jackson, 19, 38557 Arrowhead St., Gonzales, who died en route to Riverview Medical Center, the law enforcement officers said.

Miller also shot and wounded Kinsey Jackson, 17, Vaniaro Jackson's sister; Donald Rideau, 16, 40072 Germany Road., Gonzales; Rebecca Delpit, 37, 12033 Roddy Road, Gonzales; and Alesha Harvey, 14, 41444 Victoria Ave., Gonzales, Landry said.

Landry said Miller fired at least 15 times in the church, reloading his 9 mm pistol during the carnage.

After the shooting, Miller fled the church and was spotted by a sheriff's deputy responding to the reports of gunfire at the church. He starting chasing Miller, but lost track of him. Police cordoned off a several blocks surrounding the church.

At this point, Landry said, he called for assistance from the Sheriff's Office's Crisis Response Team.

Soon, Gonzales Police Sgt. Sam Pasqua spotted Miller in a storage shed behind a house next to the church.

Wiley said his team began negotiating with Miller to come out. During this time, Wiley said, Miller "kept threatening to kill himself or somebody else. He continually pointed the gun at his head, his stomach and his chest. He was ranting and raving. He said voices were telling him what to do, to kill himself or someone else.

"This contributed to a decision to bring it to a close before someone else was killed," Wiley said.

Commanders on the scene arrived at a plan in which a sharpshooter from the Office armed with a shotgun would shoot the pistol out of Miller's hand. According to the plan, immediately upon hearing the shot, three deputies from the Crisis Response Team were to rush into the shed and subdue Miller, Wiley said.

The sharpshooter fired through a hole in the wall of the shed, knocking the gun from Miller's hand, the sheriff said. The lead man on the team, carrying a 25-pound shield and a .45-caliber pistol, burst into the darkened building, which was cluttered with mattresses, tire rims and clothes.

Wiley said the lead man tripped, and as he stumbled forward, his pistol accidentally fired. The sheriff said no one knew where the bullet struck until medical authorities at Riverview Medical Center reported that Miller had a .45-caliber slug lodged in his lower back.

And so that ends our story. I do have one question for you all now - Do you really believe that the officer "tripped"? It sounds like a great big load of crap to me. Either way, the police got what they wanted - Shon Miller is now crippled, unable to move his lower body. Some people may call this justice, but I must ask you do you really want the cops dishing out justice to whoever and however they like?
 

MY OPINION

Well this one put a smile on my face. I have very little sympathy for those killed in church. If it's Gods home - then he should have protected them, and since he didn't then it was either His will, or He is actually a real bad guy. But since I don't actual believe He exists - I suppose this is a silly argument. Anyway, I don't like wife beaters, but because of where he decided to take his revenge I must give him some credit.