Post-Dispatch: Rehobson lived for a half hour after shooting

Reporter David Hunn in an article on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website offers a chilling retelling of Sunday's murder of Pastor Kernal Rehobson and two church elders during a service at the First Congregational Church in Neosho:

Sunday, well into the 1 p.m. church service, authorities and witnesses said he walked into First Congregational, filled with about 50 worshippers.

He told schoolteachers to take the children out of the sanctuary.

Then he pulled a semi-automatic Intratec 9-mm pistol out of his clothing, and, with a .22-caliber revolver in his other hand, fired rounds into the ceiling, according to police and witnesses. Until that moment, no one thought he'd actually fire, several said.

He began yelling at the worshippers, witnesses said, asking them why they were all talking about him, and why they kept criticizing him. Witnesses said he was cussing, and not always making sense.

A few started to answer. One, a relative of both the gunman and the sexual assault victim who asked not to be identified, asked forgiveness.

Then Kernel Rehobson spoke up, said the witness.

Saimon leveled the Intratec.

The burst lifted the pastor off the floor and threw him down face first, the witness said.

From that point, few in the church remember exactly what happened, several witnesses and family members said. More shots were fired and two more people were killed. So many were injured, witnesses couldn't keep track. Sometimes, they said, Saimon's finger shook; maybe the gun jammed, maybe he had second thoughts in those moments, witnesses weren't sure.

For about a half-hour, the relative of the gunman and sexual assault victim said, Kernel Rehobson kept breathing.

Someone called police at 2 p.m. About 2:20, a combined force of Missouri Highway Patrol, Keosho police and Newton County sheriff's deputies had arrived and heard a shot fired from inside the church, authorities said.

They sent a team in.

Racing up the stairs from the basement, the team found Eiken Saimon holding a gun against a woman, authorities said. The other 20-30 hostages had been gathered around him, almost to serve as shields.

Police trained their guns on Saimon.

Just before Saimon put down his guns, witnesses said, the little red lights from police scopes were beaming onto his forehead.

A link to Post-Dispatch photos from Neosho can be found on the same page as the story.