UPS Shooter Sought Prayer, Says Pastor

The man who shot and killed two former colleagues and himself at an Alabama UPS facility had "asked for prayer" amid a "troubled" period in his life, a pastor at his church tells the AP, adding, "He's just a guy who went through his trials at work. Certainly we have prayed for him." Kerry Joe Tesney, 45, of the Birmingham area, had recently been fired from the UPS job and lost an appeal over the matter, AL.com reports. It's not clear why he was fired, but a lawsuit claims that during a pickup at an auto repair shop, he took a radiator that wasn't meant to be shipped and didn't return it. The judge found the case in favor of Tesney in 2013, the site notes.

One of the men who was shot appears to have been targeted, while the other may have been a bystander, insiders say; both were supervisors. People who knew Tesney, who was married with two kids, are stunned: "He was one of the best men I have ever known," says his mother-in-law. "Nobody in a thousand years could have imagined him doing something like this," another pastor at the church tells AL.com. Another friend recalled Tesney's involvement in a program providing free ice cream for underprivileged kids: "He had a servant heart." (More Kerry Joe Tesney stories.)