Smith RELATED VIDEO Sunday afternoon report on Midwest shootings Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Jeff Flock reports a former Northwestern University basketball coach was killed in a drive-by shooting spree. Windows Media 28K 80K  MESSAGE BOARD: Race relations  ALSO: Doctoral student at Indiana University latest victim Suspect in racial shooting spree was well known in college town Widow of Chicago shooting victim: America has 'heart problem' Ex-Northwestern basketball coach killed in shooting A CNN/SI producer remembers Ricky Byrdsong

July 5, 1999
Web posted at: 1:22 a.m. EDT (0522 GMT)

In this story: Latest attack at Indiana Korean church Racist church leader: Smith 'thoughtful, dedicated' Attacks began Friday in Chicago Widow of Skokie victim: 'Wake up, America' RELATED STORIES, SITES

SALEM, Illinois (CNN) -- The man being sought for questioning in the Midwest drive-by shootings shot and killed himself after a high-speed chase on Sunday night with Salem, Illinois, police, the FBI says.

The FBI says the man is Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, a former member of a white supremacist church whose car had been linked to a string of drive-by shootings targeted at blacks, Jews and Asians.

FBI sources tell CNN that police in the southern Illinois town took off after a van that had been carjacked. The driver of the van pulled out a gun and shot himself. The van crashed and the driver was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

A positive identification of the man will not be made until later on Monday. FBI sources also tell CNN that a blue Ford Taurus registered to Smith was discovered in the vicinity of the high speed chase.

Two people have died and eight others have been wounded since Friday in seven separate attacks in Chicago, downstate Illinois and Indiana.

Chicago police have described Smith, 21, as "a person of interest" wanted for questioning, and a warrant for his arrest has been issued in Bloomington, Indiana, where a Korean man was shot to death outside a church service Sunday morning.

Smith, a former member of the Peoria, Illinois-based World Church of the Creator, is described as a white male, 6 feet tall, weighing 130 pounds, with a tattoo on his chest reading "Sabbath Breaker."

Latest attack at Indiana Korean church

The latest attack happened Sunday morning shortly after 11 a.m. CT (noon ET) when a white man driving a light blue Taurus fired four shots toward a crowd of worshippers outside a Korean church in Bloomington.

Won-Joon Yoon, a graduate student at Indiana University, was shot twice and died.

A witness to the shooting followed the car to the nearby town of Nashville, Indiana, and got the license plate number, said Bloomington Police Chief Jim Kennedy.

The car registration for the Taurus listed Smith as a Bloomington resident, Hayes said. Kennedy said he was familiar with Smith.

"He was involved in the distribution of anti-minority and anti-Semitic literature in Bloomington last year, and he was a student at Indiana University last year," Kennedy said.

Racist church leader: Smith 'thoughtful, dedicated'

RELATED AUDIO: Leader of the World Church of the creator, Matt Hale, describes Smith 350K/29 sec. AIFF or WAV sound

The leader of the World Church of the Creator, Matt Hale, told CNN that Smith joined the church in June 1998 and left in May. He said there was no indication that Smith was inclined to violence.

"He was a thoughtful, dedicated person. (He) believed essentially in our creed, our religion. I never had any kind of information or inkling that he would do anything illegal or violent," Hale said.

Hale's church unapologetically espouses white supremacist views. Hale himself has been involved in a well-publicized tug-of-war with Illinois officials who have refused to admit him to the practice of law because of his views.

Asked if he feared that his church's teachings might push someone toward violence, Hale said, "No more than the Pope in Rome has thought about people bombing abortion clinics."

Attacks began Friday in Chicago

The series of shootings began Friday with three attacks in the Chicago area, which Hayes said have been linked together by forensic evidence at the crime scenes:

• Former Northwestern University basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong, who is black, was killed after a drive-by shooting in the Chicago suburb of Skokie.

• Six Orthodox Jews were wounded while walking home from Sabbath services in the Rogers Park neighborhood.

• An Asian couple in a car were shot at but not hit as they tried to pass a light blue Taurus in the suburb of Northbrook.

On Saturday, there were three attacks in downstate Illinois:

• Saturday morning, in two separate incidents less than 15 minutes and 10 blocks apart, a gunman fired at black men on the streets of Springfield, according to city police. One man was slightly injured. Witnesses described the shooter as a white man driving a light blue Taurus.

• Late Saturday evening, someone in a light blue car fired at a group of six Asians near the University of Illinois campus in Urbana. One man, a 22-year-old university student, was hit but not seriously wounded.

Another shooting not officially linked to the spree occurred in Decatur, Illinois -- between Springfield and Urbana -- at about 3 p.m. Saturday. A black minister was shot twice and treated and released from a hospital. However, the car in that case was described by witnesses as a white Ford Taurus, not a light blue one.

Widow of Skokie victim: 'Wake up, America'

At a press conference with her pastor and three children Sunday night, Byrdsong's widow, Sherialyn, said "the violent act which took my husband's life is yet another clarion call to our nation."

"It is time to wake up, America," she said. "This is not a gun problem. It is a heart problem. And only God and reading his word can change hearts."

Chicago Bureau Chief Jeff Flock contributed to this report, which was written by Richard Shumate.

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