Police say a homeless woman shot and killed a pastor at a south side church Saturday morning.
Jaman Iseminger was shot as members arrived at Bethel Community Church to clean up a nearby cemetery. Parishioners gathered in disbelief after hearing the pastor was dead.
"There's grief, there's grief. A mighty man of God has fallen," said friend Danny Carroll.
According to police, the 29-year-old arrived to the church along Southport Road to greet members who were coming in to clean up the cemetery next door. Instead, he was confronted by a homeless woman, later identified as 46-year-old Lori Ann Barcroft, inside the church. Investigators say she pulled out a gun, shot him, then left.
"You heard him screaming, but it was more like a mumble than anything. Then you could hear someone saying, 'He's shot! He's shot'," said Sheryl Silcox, who lives across the street from the church.
Metro police found Barcroft a few blocks away and took her into custody. According to detectives, she confessed to the shooting and now faces a preliminary charge of murder. Investigators are not saying if she knew the pastor or why she might have shot him.
Neighbor Bob Mayer says he can't imagine anyone would want to hurt a man who had given so much to the community.
"It was kind of a shock to know that anybody would have anything against him," said Mayer.
Iseminger launched numerous church outreach programs in the community and had recently returned from a mission trip to south Africa.
"He believed the church of Jesus Christ was not to be in these four walls, but to actually love the least of these," said Carroll.
Jaman's mother, Gina Iseminger, said in the 30 years she has been a member of Bethel Community, the church had never seen a leader quite like her son.
"You would never have met a more joyful, weird, wacky individual. Everything he did was to honor Christ, but it wasn't stodgy. He just exuded joy," she said.
She says it's important that his message, his life's work, however brief, is carried on.
"Willing to love, living to serve. He came up with that and insisted the church live it. And we will live it," Gina Iseminger said.
Iseminger leaves behind a wife and a 2-year-old daughter. Church services have been canceled for Sunday morning.
