LAKE CHARLES, La. — A 53-year-old man with no known criminal history is being held in lieu of $1 million bond, accused of shooting and killing a preacher during a revival service in southwest Louisiana.
Woodrow Karey, of Lake Charles, surrendered minutes after Ronald Harris was shot in front of 65 worshipers Friday night in the Tabernacle of Praise Worship Center, the Calcasieu Parish sheriff's office said Saturday. Karey was booked on a second-degree murder charge.
Deputies don't know a motive or of any past history of mental problems for Karey, sheriff's office spokeswoman Kim Myers said in e-mails Sunday. Investigators don't know whether the two men knew each other, she said.
"Karey shot Harris with a shotgun twice — once when he walked into the church and a second time when Harris fell to the floor and Karey walked up to him and shot him at close range," she said in a news release Saturday.
When Karey turned himself in, he told deputies where to find a shotgun and a .22-caliber pistol he left in nearby woods, Myers said.
The pastor's daughter, Talisha Harris, said if her father could talk to his killer, he would say, "I forgive you and I love you."