Jack Wilson, West Freeway Church of Christ’s head of security, tells NBC’s Blayne Alexander he feels like he “killed an evil,” not a human, when he shot the gunman who killed two people during Sunday’s church service.
A gunman who killed two people during a North Texas church service was fatally shot within seconds by the church's head of security who says he feels like he "killed an evil," not a human.
Jack Wilson, 71, posted on Facebook late Sunday night that he "had to take out an active shooter in church."
Wilson said he was head of security for the West Freeway Church of Christ and that he and other members of the church who were part of the congregation's volunteer security team were "not going to allow evil to succeed." Wilson in the past has owned a gun range, taught firearm safety, including members of the church's security team, and was a former Hood County reserve deputy.
Wilson recalled the events leading up to the shooting Monday afternoon with NBC News' Blayne Alexander, saying there was concern about the individual as soon as he entered the building due to the way he was dressed, in a long coat with a fake beard and wig.
He said church security trained an A/V camera on the man and that a member of the volunteer security team, Richard White, sat behind him in the auditorium.
Wilson said the man had stood up and left the auditorium once to use the restroom and that he'd talked to Anton "Tony" Wallace as he served communion before returning to his seat.
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Wilson said the man then stood up and pulled out a shotgun and that's when both he and White drew their guns.
"Richard did get his gun out of the holster, he was, I think, able to get a shot off but it ended up going into the wall. The shooter had turned, shot him and then shot Tony, and then started to turn to go to the front of the auditorium," Wilson recalled.
Wilson said he didn't initially have a clear shot on the shooter and had to wait a half-second or second for parishioners to clear out of the way. He said he then fired one shot at the gunman's head and that the shooter, identified Monday as Keith Kinnunen, of River Oaks, immediately went down.
"The only clear shot I had was his head because I still had people in the pews that were not all the way down … that was my one shot. When I teach people, I teach them not to shoot the head unless that's all you have," Wilson said, explaining that it's easier to hit a person in their body because it's a larger target than the head. "If that's the only shot you've got, then that's the shot you take."
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The entire incident inside the church took approximately six seconds.
When asked how he was coping with the shooting and losing two close friends, Wilson said he was "very sad and concerned for the family members" and that it was a "close-knit congregation." He added that, "I don't feel like I killed a human. I killed an evil. That's how I'm coping with the situation."
Wilson said the church started their volunteer security team after moving to their new building out of concern for violence in the area. Wilson said that in 2018 there were five homicides within two miles of the church and that while most congregants didn't think anything would ever happen, they wanted to be prepared.
"Had we not had not had the security team in place it would have been a much, in my opinion, probably a much more severe outcome," Wilson said Monday, adding that there were as many as 250 people in the auditorium at the time of the shooting. "You don't know when something bad is going to happen or where it's going to happen. You carry it [your gun] anywhere and everywhere you legally can because you never know when you're going to have to use it."
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In response's to his Facebook post about the shooting, Wilson, the former owner of On Target Firearms Training Academy, Inc., a Tarrant County gun range that burned down in 2016, said the gun he was carrying Sunday was his Sig Sauer P229 .357 -- Sig Sauer's website called the gun "the choice for many of the premier global military, law enforcement and commercial users." Wilson considered moving his gun range to Hood County and announced last fall that he was running for Hood County Commissioner Precinct 3.
Isabel Arreola, who told the Star-Telegram that she was sitting near the gunman, said that she was surprised by how quickly the gunman was shot because she didn't realize there were that many armed people in the church.
Britt Farmer, senior minister of the church, said, "We lost two great men today, but it could have been a lot worse."
Church officials planned to make a statement Monday evening following a closed meeting and prayer vigil just for church members, Farmer said.
