Professor Who Helped Disarm Gunman in Church Shootings Felt No Danger

By KATE MOSER

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John Bohstedt thought it was odd when a stranger carrying a guitar case walked into his Knoxville, Tenn., church last Sunday just after children had begun to perform a play. "There are no guitars in this play," the recently retired professor remembers thinking.

Members of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, near the University of Tennessee campus, had gathered to watch the children put on Annie Jr. The performance was the culmination of a two-week musical camp. Mr. Bohstedt, 64, had been cast as Daddy Warbucks and was waiting to go onstage, standing in a hallway outside the church sanctuary. His granddaughter, visiting from Alabama, had two small parts in the play as well: as a servant and an apple seller.

Engrossed in the play, the audience didn't immediately grasp what was happening when the man pulled a semiautomatic shotgun from the guitar case and opened fire. Two people were killed and seven others were injured in the attack.

Mr. Bohstedt moved toward the shooter after the first shot rang out. Screams erupted after the second and third shots, and the man stopped to reload.

"I rushed at him," said Mr. Bohstedt, an emeritus history professor who retired this summer from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. "My objective was to get the gun and point it up."

He felt no personal danger as he and several other people in the congregation overpowered the shooter. They restrained the man until police officers took him into custody. Mr. Bohstedt said he took off his suspenders—part of his costume—in an effort to bind the shooter's arms.

Authorities have credited the actions of Mr. Bohstedt and others who tackled the gunman with preventing additional deaths.

After the shooter was subdued, Mr. Bohstedt said he went to be next to Greg McKendry, who was the first person the shooter encountered and was one of the two people killed.

Mr. Bohstedt said he held Mr. McKendry's hand and "just kept saying into his ear, 'Stay with us, Greg, we need you. You're a hero.'"

Police officials have identified the gunman as Jim David Adkisson, a 58-year-old unemployed man. He has been charged with one count of first-degree murder, with additional charges pending.

The police said the gunman was motivated by hatred of the church's policies supporting social liberalism and gay rights. They found a four-page letter outlining his grievances in his SUV, parked in the church parking lot.

Unwilling 'to Stand Idly By'

Mr. Bohstedt said he has often wondered what he would do in a moment of violence or terror, such as on a plane being hijacked, like the ones diverted during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"I can't say that I had a plan," Mr. Bohstedt said of his role in stopping the shooter. "But ... I don't think I would want to stand idly by."

His colleagues say that is the kind of moral courage Mr. Bohstedt has shown throughout his professional life.

"The reaction of the history professors at Tennessee was unanimous," said Todd A. Diacon, vice provost for academic operations and a history professor there. "None of us were surprised that he was one of the first to tackle the man."

Mr. Bohstedt "goes the extra mile" to help students, Mr. Diacon said. When Mr. Diacon's wife called to tell him about the shooting, he said, one of his first thoughts was: "If anything good happened in there, it has something to do with John."

"What really tears me up," he added, "is that all those children had to witness that, including his granddaughter."

A Scholar of Quests for Justice

A neighborhood activist and member of his church for 27 years, Mr. Bohstedt has spent his academic life studying and teaching about violence and the roots of collective violence, specializing in riots and revolutions that stem from quests for social justice. His latest book is about three centuries of food riots in Britain.

In his teaching about violent acts, like lynchings, he has encouraged students to envision what they would do if that violence were happening around them.

Mr. Bohstedt said he is "an incurable optimist" about the power of love, and that is why he is a teacher. A candlelight vigil that brought a thousand Knoxville residents to a neighboring church on Monday helped the grieving members of the Unitarian Universalist congregation begin to heal, he said.

"Love will prevail," he said. "Think about what you're going to do, and when your moment comes, step up and do it."