Gunman In Missouri Church Charged With Murder

Monday, August 13th 2007, 7:21 am

By: News On 6

NEOSHO, Mo. (AP) _ Prosecutors on Monday filed three murder charges against a Micronesian man accused of opening fire inside of a church, killing three people and wounding five others during a worship service of a mostly Micronesian congregation.

Prosecutors also charged the man, Eiken Elam Saimon, 52, of Newton County with assault, felonious restraint for holding the congregation hostage, and armed criminal action. Another assault charge was pending, Newton County Prosecutor Scott Watson said.

Authorities earlier said the suspect had targeted elders of the congregation of mostly Pacific islanders. He opened fire during a Sunday afternoon service at a church in southwestern Missouri.

The victims were not friends or relatives of the gunman, Watson said.

``I think that you'll find that the victims were what some would term elders or leaders (of the Micronesian congregation),'' Watson told The Associated Press earlier in the day. ``As information continues to come forward, it appears that the shots that were fired were not random.''

Saimon, in his 40s, also is a suspect in the alleged sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl on Saturday, Watson said. That girl is a relative of Saimon's, although authorities did not specify how the two were related.

Saimon was being held on $5 million bond and was to be arraigned Monday afternoon in Newton County Circuit Court.

The gunman opened fire after ordering children out of the sanctuary of First Congregational Church, which the Micronesian congregation rents for its services.

Police said the shooting followed an altercation Saturday night between the suspect and a family that belonged to the congregation. It wasn't clear if the suspect was part of the congregation or if the family was in the sanctuary during the attack.

The gunman had two small-caliber handguns and one 9 mm semi-automatic machine pistol with a large magazine, McCracken said. The shooting came during the 1 p.m. service, which was attended by about 50 people, ranging in age from children to the elderly.

``This was a tragedy as far as those killed and injured but it could have been a lot worse,'' McCracken said.

The gunman surrendered after about 10 minutes of negotiation. He had briefly held 25 to 50 people hostage before surrendering

Police have named one of the dead so far, Kernal Rehobson, 44, of Goodman, who was the pastor of the congregation.

The other two victims were male members of the congregation, who were ``what we would call deacons,'' said Dave McCracken, Neosho police chief. Their names were not released because relatives were still being notified.

He said police were told five wounded people, all adults, would recover.

During the 1990s, thousands of Micronesians emigrated from their Pacific island nations to southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas, drawn by plentiful jobs in the poultry and manufacturing industries.

Unlike other immigrants who settled in the area, Micronesians can live and work in the United States without getting visas because of their home countries' unique relationship with the United States.

Island nations throughout the Pacific fell under U.S. control after the area was wrested from Japanese control after World War II. The nations were run as colonial outposts called trust territories. When countries like The Federated States of Micronesia gained independence in the 1980s, they entered pacts with the United States that gave Micronesians the right to live and work in the United States.

Micronesians were drawn to small towns like Neosho and Springdale, Ark., because of the low cost of living and the ever-growing presence of other Micronesians. The immigrants formed tightly knit communities with their own churches, general stores and community events. About 200 Micronesians live in the Neosho area.

Rehobson led the group of Micronesians for about 15 years and ran a Micronesian store out of his house in Goodman, said Larry Zuniga, 42, who worked with Rehobson at Wal-Mart.

The congregants used to meet at Rehobson's house and were using the First Congregational Church for worship while they searched for a permanent home, Zuniga said.