WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina | Blackville associate pastor shot at close range, congregation shocked

Blackville associate pastor shot at close range, congregation shocked

BARNWELL COUNTY, SC (WIS) - An associate pastor has been found shot to death at his favorite fishing spot.

Police say Reverend Phillip McCreary was found dead on the Edisto River off Highway 39 in Barnwell County. He died of a close-range gunshot to the back of his head.

McCreary loved to fish. His family said that's where he found peace. It's also where he died.

His wife Anne says, "He did not deserve to die like that."

Friday night McCreary didn't return from his usual fishing trip off Highway 39 in Barnwell County.

When officers went looking for him, they found him dead, killed by a single bullet. His sister, Mary McCreary-Jones, can't understand, "How could anyone shoot a man of God in the back of the head and walk away? I don't understand."

The sheriff doesn't know anyone who would want McCreary dead. He was a man of God - an associate pastor at Macedonia Baptist Church in Blackville. Sheriff Ed Carroll says, "It seems to be a senseless murder. A good man enjoying himself, not a place you expect to get hurt. I don't have an answer."

Church members are also puzzled by McCreary's murder. Donald Price says, "If there's anyone who probably made it to Heaven, I would say he'd be one of them, most definitely."

The sheriff says there was a boater sometime around 7:00 Friday night that may have seen something that could give them a break in the case. McCreary's wife needs those answers. "I just pray whoever or who the persons are that did this to my husband will realize what they did is not according to the word of God and turn themselves in."

Several days before this husband and father was killed, he became a grandfather.

Church leaders say there will be a wake held for McCreary Thursday evening from 5:00-7:00pm in Blackville at Macedonia Baptist Church.

The funeral will be held Friday at 2:00pm at Blackville Hilda High School, and McCreary will be buried at his wife's church, Oakey Spring Baptist Church in Springfield.

Reported by Maggie Alexander

Updated by Chantelle Janelle