'He's killed me. I'm dying.' Minister recounts chaos during Antioch church shooting

Minister Joey Spann expected to die.

He lay bleeding, collapsed on the floor of Burnette Chapel Church of Christ, and watched the masked man who had just shot him in the chest and hand walk farther into the church.

"The shots kept going," Spann said. "I thought he was going to kill everybody."

The gunfire stopped. But Spann, who leads the small congregation in Antioch, still thought he was dying. So the minister prayed.

He didn’t pray to be saved by the church members who applied pressure to his wounds. He didn't pray to be saved as he heard them call 911. He prayed for forgiveness. 

"God, I’m sorry for things I didn’t do right," Spann said in a telephone interview Monday evening from his hospital room.

The masked man and Sunday mayhem 

Metro police say 25-year-old Emanuel Samson opened fire at the end of the church's Sunday morning service, killing church goer Melanie Crow and wounding seven others. Samson is charged with one count of homicide. 

Spann, who also is a teacher and basketball coach at Nashville Christian School, recounted on Monday night the mayhem that unfolded a day earlier. He was shaking hands and chatting with members of the congregation near the back door of the church. 

"We hear pop, pop, pop," Spann said.

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The 66-year-old minister turned toward the sound. He saw a masked man walking his way and firing a gun. He tried to get away. Bullets bounced off the glass and the metal door. They hit Spann's wife Peggy and others standing near the entrance. 

Spann tried to stop the shooter. He threw a wooden crate at the man and ran toward him, but collapsed. 

"He shot me in the chest and shot again and shot again. I heard the bullet go by my head. Another one tore my hand up," Spann said. "I just continued to cross the vestibule and fell down on the other side of it."

The shooting eventually stopped.

The heroic actions of church goers

Spann, still conscious but in the midst of an out-of-body experience, remembers church members tending to his wounds. A measure that nurses at Vanderbilt University Medical Center later told him likely saved his life.

"My wife called my name out," Spann said. "She said, 'Are you OK?' I said, 'He's killed me. I'm dying.' And I told her, 'I'm sorry.'" 

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He remembers seeing Caleb Engle covered in blood, looking at him. Metro police credit 22-year-old Engle with helping to stop the attack.

Spann praised the heroism of Engle and other young people at the church, like 10-year-old Jeremiah Reese who helped barricade a door for protection. And Spann's grandson, who helped people escape out a side door of the church, he said.

As the paramedics carried Spann away, his thoughts shifted to his wife of more than 40 years. 

"When they were rolling me by her, I was saying goodbye to her," Spann said. "I thought that was it."

But Spann didn't die, the second close call he has had. In 2011, he survived sudden cardiac arrest while coaching a Goodpasture Christian School’s girls’ basketball team. He was revived with an automated external defibrillator during the game. 

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Minister makes first public remarks 

Spann lost a finger in Sunday's shooting, but is so thankful to be alive, he said at a Tuesday news conference. Sitting in a wheelchair, Spann said he was able to see his wife early Tuesday for the first time since the shooting. It was an emotional meeting. They are both in stable condition.  

With a bandaged hand and taking brief breaks for sips of water, Spann said he did not resent the shooter who attacked his church. He would forgive him.    

"I don’t have any hard feelings toward him. I don’t think about him," Spann said. "If I had the opportunity to talk to him I would and I would try to help him."

The shooting is prompting Spann to reconsider security at Burnette Chapel, including whether or not to lock a side door some church goers escaped out of Sunday.    

"Churches, you don’t lock the doors. But, we may have to. It’s sad," Spann said. 

On Monday night, Spann thanked God for deliverance and for the health of those who survived. He mourned the death of Crow, but found comfort in knowing she died a Christian.

The shooting didn't shake Spann's faith.

Spann plans to return to preaching and coaching and teaching. He loves and appreciates the support shown by those at his current and former schools. He wants his congregation and the community to know that he is "all right" and the church is going to be all right, too. 

"If we're in God's hand and we believe that, we're going to be all right. And I believe I'm in God's hands," Spann said Monday. "Had I died, I'm going to be all right. God's hand isn't just about when things go good. Or things go bad. It's period." 

Reach Holly Meyer at hmeyer@tennessean.com or 615-259-8241 and on Twitter @HollyAMeyer.