Minister Fatally Shoots Himself During Sermon

A minister who was using a .357-caliber Magnum to compare sin to Russian roulette died after shooting himself in the head with a blank round before several hundred parishioners, including his family.

Melvyn Nurse, 35, died Thursday at University Medical Center, five days after he shot himself during his sermon at Livingway Christian Fellowship Church International.

“I thought it was part of the sermon, that he was supposed to fall. When I got up there, I saw blood on the carpet,” said Anthony Speight, the church pastor.

Nurse was preaching about sin and guns when he raised the gun to his head and pulled the trigger, shattering his skull.

During the sermon, Speight said, Nurse opened the gun’s cylinder, inserted a blank, spun the cylinder and closed it. Blanks contain a hard cardboard-like wad that shoots several feet from the barrel when fired, police said. Nurse may not have realized they could injure someone.