ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (AP) - The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland is offering forgiveness and a funeral service for a homeless man who killed himself after fatally shooting an Ellicott City priest and church secretary last week.
Church officials said Wednesday that the family of Douglas Franklin Jones hasn't decided whether to accept offers from several parishes to hold a Christian burial service for the man responsible for the bloodshed at St. Peter's last Thursday.
Bishop Eugene Sutton says Jones was a victim of the same societal attitudes toward handgun ownership and poverty that led to the deaths of the Rev. Mary-Marguerite Kohn and Brenda Brewington.
He says his model is the Amish community in Lancaster County, Pa., that forgave the man who fatally shot five school girls there in 2006.
