Knoxville Unitarian Universalist church shooting

[3][4] A letter, or "manifesto", found in his vehicle after the shooting attributed his motivation for the rampage as a hatred of liberals, Democrats, African Americans, and homosexuals.

60-year-old Greg McKendry, a longtime church member and usher who deliberately stood in front of the gunman to protect others, was killed at the scene.

[6] The shooter was stopped when church members John Bohstedt, Robert Birdwell, Arthur Bolds, and Terry Uselton, along with visitor Jamie Parkey, restrained him.

[9][10][11] According to an affidavit by one of the officers who interviewed Adkisson on July 27, 2008:[12] During the interview Adkisson stated that he had targeted the church because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of major media outlets.

In his manifesto, Adkisson also included the Democratic members of the House and Senate,[14] and the 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America[14] of Bernard Goldberg in his list of wished-for targets.

[21][22][23] At his first court appearance, Adkisson waived his rights to the preliminary hearing and requested the case go directly to the grand jury.

[25] On February 4, 2009, lawyers representing Adkisson announced that he would plead guilty to two counts of murder, accepting a life sentence without possibility of parole.

"Yes, ma'am, I am guilty as charged," he told Criminal Court Judge Mary Beth Leibowitz before she sentenced him to life in prison without parole.

A mental health expert had determined that Adkisson was competent to make the plea, although public defender Mark Stephens was prepared to argue at the trial that his client was insane at the time the crime was committed.

Evidence showed that Adkisson bought the shotgun a month before the attack, sawed off the barrel at his home and carried the weapon into the church in a guitar case he had purchased two days before the shooting.

[29] Lovelace noted that many elements of Adkisson's background are consistent with those of typical mass murderers, including a history of substance abuse and feelings of depression, anger and hopelessness stemming from unemployment and financial woes.

Concerning the targeted Unitarian Universalist church, he calls it "a den of un-American vipers" saying they are "sickos, weirdos and homos" who will "embrace every pervert".

Rodger, on the other hand, expressed rage towards interracial couples, minorities and girls or women who "gave their affection and sex and love to other men but never to me."