LDS Shooting Update: Elusive motive that Nevada man detained on $ 1.05 million bail, facing murder charge

SALT LAKE CITY – Bert Miller, a discreet but modest mechanic and volunteer firefighter, brought the sacrament emblems to John O'Connor in the home of the Fallon South Stake LDS Church Center on Sunday. A few minutes before O & # 39; Connor rose from the couch, entered the chapel and reportedly shot and killed Miller, his daughter said Monday morning.

O'Connor was formally charged Monday with the murder and battery with substantial damages and is held on bail Gehman said the Fallon police had finished processing the crime scene in the chapel and had released the meeting house at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

a handgun during the execution of a search warrant at O ​​& # 39; Connor. They said that it is similar to the weapon described by the witnesses and corresponds to the caliber of the casings found in the chapel.

The police did not establish a reason for why O. Connor, 48, reportedly shot at Miller, and the investigation is underway, Gehman said: "We do not know why. have no way of understanding why this happened, "said Heidi Ayers, the second of Miller's three children. "My father shook his hand before the meeting, my father passed the sacrament to him five minutes ago."

Ayers said his father was sitting on the same bench as the chapel door his family has occupied for 35 years. 19659005] "My father's back was his when he entered the door," says Ayers, "and he walked toward him."

Ayers provided a portrait of his father as his family prepared for his funeral

Miller had urged his wife, LuDene, who is undergoing cancer treatments, to stay at Fallon's Sunday services home Third Ward to rest the ankle she broke in a fall a week ago

her brother and sister-in-law, who were visiting for Utah for a family reunion scheduled for this week around Miller's birthday, which was to arrive Saturday.

Miller was a father of three and a grandfather of five.

"He was a great dad," said Ayers, "but he was a better dad."

Miller and his wife had been Mar Ried for 37 years. He has been a proud volunteer with the renowned Fallon / Churchill County Fire Department for 35 years, sometimes serving as Captain and Deputy Chief, Ayers

.

Miller and his wife operated an auto parts store in Fallon for almost 10 years. After they sold him, Miller went to work as a mechanic at the nearby Naval Base for Chugach International. He had been working there for 20 years.

"We were stuck in stores, at dinner, at the church," she said. "His pager would go off and he could run out a few hours or days before we saw him again."

Ayers said that Miller knew O. Connor for years.

"They were acquaintances. (O & # 39; Connor) was a convert, but he was not very active My father always said hello to him."

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LuDene Miller learned of a friend 's shootout that she called and told her that a call had come out on emergency radios about a Fallon South Stake shootout. Center, 750 W. Richards St. She tried to phone her husband, but he did not answer.

She called Ayers, who lives in three houses. Ayers caught her husband, an ambulance attendant, and they ran to the meeting house.

A marine doctor who was attending the room for the first time, two spectators and Ayers' husband tried to help Miller