Rapist Black Preacher Shot Dead in the Middle of a Sermon

Simon Moya-Smith
NBC
September 1, 2013

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Woodrow Karey, Jr. after being charged in the shooting death of Pastor Ronald J. Harris, Sr., on Sept. 28. Police said a gunman walked into the Tabernacle of Praise Worship Center in Lake Charles and shot Pastor Ronald J. Harris Sr. “as he was preaching.” Harris was pronounced dead at the scene. Karey, 53, of Lake Charles, is charged with second-degree murder and was held in the parish jail Saturday.

A Louisiana pastor who was shot dead during a sermon in front of a dozens of parishioners may have had some inappropriate contact — including possibly rape —  with the suspect’s wife, police said Monday.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that the alleged gunman, Woodrow Karey, 53, shot Pastor Ronald J. Harris Sr. after discovering correspondence on his wife’s cell phone between the woman and Harris, the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office, said Monday.

Sheriff Tony Mancuso told NBC News that he could not say how his office came to receive the text messages but that they have issued search warrants “for several different phones.”

And two days prior to the shooting, Karey’s wife filed rape charges against Harris, according to Sheriff’s office.

Mancuso said the task is now to determine what exactly the nature of the relationship between the pastor and the wife was.

“We have enough now to say, ‘Okay, was there some kind of consensual sexual relationship?’” he said.

Mancuso added that both the alleged rape and the shooting will be investigated together.

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