News

Pastor charged in family shooting

Photo: Brad Veenstra, KNSI

Jan 18, 2013 at 7:48 am

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KNSI) A Rochester pastor is charged with a felony for shooting and wounding his granddaughter after mistaking her for an intruder last month.

Sixty-one-year-old Stanley Wilkinson is charged with intentional discharge of a firearm that endangered safety. A court appearance is scheduled Feb. 25.

Wilkinson told police he grabbed his pistol after hearing a noise outside his house Dec. 10 and fired two rounds after seeing what he thought was someone trying to open the deck door.

It turned out to be his 16-year-old granddaughter, who was struck once in the neck.

The teen had been living with her grandparents. She told police she left the house without her grandparents knowing.

Wilkinson is pastor at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Rochester.