According to relatives, Derrick Birdow had been acting strangely, claiming that people were trying to kill him. “’He’s been having some issues, and he hasn’t been himself,’ (Birdow’s cousin, Christopher) Henderson said. ‘This past week, he’s been going through some stuff.’” No one ever expects the Spanish Inquisition and no one expected Birdow to plough his Mercury Marquis into the Greater Sweethome Missionary Baptist Church and unleash his inner Pete Townsend on the pastor . . .
[Forest Hill Police Chief Dan] Dennis said he believes the attacker chased Kirk through a side door and then beat him with an electric guitar in the music area of the church near the back classrooms. At some point, [the janitor, John] Whitaker tried to help Kirk, but was also injured.
Birdow, according to dallsnews.com, beat the pastor to death before the police could get there.
When officers arrived, the attacker was still beating Kirk with the guitar, Dennis said. Officers used a Taser on the man, but he resisted even as an officer dragged him to a squad car. Later, emergency personnel found him unresponsive inside the squad car. (Birdow) was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Men (and women) of the cloth are no different than anyone else. They have the same right to armed self defense as the members of their congregation do. Some would claim they also have the duty to protect their flock. It seems someone snaps a guitar string about once a year, walking into a church during Sunday services somewhere and opening fire. Who better to defend them than the man wearing the collar?