On March 10, 1999, 25-year-old Carla Vessel Miller was shot and killed in a mass attack in Gonzales, Louisiana carried out by her estranged husband, Shon Miller Sr. The sequence began with the fatal shooting of Carla’s mother, 53-year-old Mildred Vessel, who was shot while seated in her van. Miller then entered New St. John Fellowship Baptist Church during an evening Bible study, fired into the ceiling, ordered parishioners down, and walked the aisle to where Carla and the couple’s two-year-old son were seated.

Witnesses said the child recognized his father and called out Daddy before Miller shot both Carla and the boy. A 19-year-old church deacon, Vaniaro Jackson, was also killed and four others wounded. After a manhunt, officers found Miller in a nearby shed; he was wounded by police and taken into custody. Miller was charged with four counts of first-degree murder; a jury later convicted him and recommended death sentences, but convictions were reversed on appeal over an insanity pleading issue and he ultimately entered a guilty plea that resulted in life without parole.