Jim D. Adkisson allegedly shot to death two people and seriously wounded five others. Knoxville , Tenn. , Police are trying to determine whether to charge a madman with a hate crime who busted into a church and blasted away, killing two people and leaving five others in serious or critical condition. People scurried under pews or ran from the church as 58-year-old Jim D. Adkisson began firing, witnesses said. But Greg McKendry, 60, who was killed in the melee, is being hailed as a hero because “he stood in front of the gunman and took the blast to protect the rest of us,” Barbara Kemper, a member of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, told The Associated Press. Also killed was Linda Kreager, 61, died at the University of Tennessee Medical Centre a few hours after the shooting, a city spokesman told AP. Witnesses said that many of the 200 congregants, who had gathered at the church watch a play, pounced on Adkisson and detained him until the police arrived. Kemper told police that said that the alleged shooter shouted before he fired his shotgun. “It was hateful words. He was saying hateful things,” she said, refusing to repeat what the gunman said. Adkission’s motivation is unknown. The church, which promotes social progressive work and desegregation, among what many would consider liberal issues, has provided sanctuary for political refugees, fed the homeless and founded a chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, AP reports, citing the church Web site. The FBI is assisting with the investigation, in case it is deemed a hate crime, according to AP.  Watch the video below.