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Rosa, who has been a member of the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ for eight years, said the suspect was silent as he fired shots inside the church. She said she heard the pastor shout \"Run! Run! Gunshots!\" as the gunman made his way down the aisle.

Engle's grandmother, 69-year-old Rheta Engle, told a local newspaper that she was proud of him.

\"That’s like him. He’s just someone who cares about a lot of people. He has all their feelings at heart,\" she told the Tennessean on Sunday afternoon. \"It would make any parent, grandparent very, very proud of him.\"

Blake Langford, Robert Engle's friend, described him as a “gentle giant.”

“He's just a great guy,” Langford told the Tennessean. “Just one of the kindest human beings you'll ever meet.”

Engle was released from a local hospital on Sunday night and is back home with his family, according to local news outlets.

Samson, who police said had attended the church within the past two years, was treated at a local hospital for a gunshot wound and is expected to be charged with one count of murder, with additional charges pending, according to police.

The motive for the shooting is unclear.

The Memphis FBI Field Office's Nashville Resident Agency, the Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee have opened a civil rights investigation into the shooting.

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