TUCSON, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- The leader of a Kansas sect of self-proclaimed Baptists says "God sent" the man accused of shooting 20 people in Arizona, killing six of them.
In a telephone interview with the New Times in Phoenix, Shirley Phelps-Roper, a leader of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, said 22-year-old Jared Loughner acted on God's instructions.
"God sent the shooter -- that guy's bat-[expletive] crazy -- but God sent him," she said.
The congregation that publicizes protests at U.S. soldiers' funerals said it wanted to protest at the funeral of federal Judge John Roll, one of the victims of the Arizona shootings. But the newspaper said the Hells Angels motorcycle club offered to provide security at the event to keep the Kansas group away.
Phelps-Roper criticized Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., at whose political event the shooting attack occurred. Phelps-Roper said Giffords, who was in critical condition with a bullet wound to the head, was among the "rotten rebels" who are destroying the country with their liberal views, the newspaper said. UPI
