Tim Remington, the 55-year-old senior pastor of The Altar Church in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, was shot and critically wounded the day after giving the invocation at a rally for Senator Ted Cruz. (Christian Character Builders)
The pastor of an Idaho church was shot and critically wounded Sunday, just one day after giving the invocation at a rally for Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
Tim Remington, the 55-year-old senior pastor and founder of The Altar Church, was shot in the Coeur d’Alene church parking lot at about 2 p.m., the CDA Press reports. He is being treated at a local hospital and remained in critical condition at the trauma center Sunday night.
The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Kyle Andrew Odom, fled before officers arrived, police said.
Remington led the prayer Saturday at the Cruz presidential rally at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds. His family and friends say the pastor miraculously survived the shooting and is expected to be released from the hospital this week.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. He Was Shot 6 Times After Leaving the Church’s Service
Pastor Tim Remington was shot six times as he left The Altar Church following Sunday services, the Spokesman Review reports.
While his injuries are serious, he is expected to make a full recovery, according to the newspaper.
“One of the bullets tried to enter the brain but stopped at the skull, one of the bullets busted his hip, one fractured his shoulder pretty bad, but he is and will continue to be alive and serving God!” Roger Crigger, a family friend, told the Spokesman Review.
John Padula, the church’s outreach minister, told the newspaper security footage shows the gunman wandering around outside while waiting for Remington to exit the church. He then walks up to him and begins shooting him in the back, Padula said. The suspect had been in the church during services.
2. He Gave the Invocation at a Ted Cruz Rally Attended by Thousands
On Saturday, the day before the shooting, Pastor Tim Remington gave the invocation at a rally for Texas Senator and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds.
About 3,000 people attended the rally, KREM-TV reported.
You can watch his opening prayer below:
No motive for the shooting has been released and it is not clear that there is any connection between it and Remington’s support of Cruz.
3. He Is Married & Has 4 Children
Tim Remington, with his wife, Cindy. (The Altar Church)
Tim Remington married his wife, Cindy Remington, while living in California in the late 1970s, according to his biography on the church’s website.
The Remingtons have four children.
Family and friends gathered for prayer vigils Sunday at the shooting scene and the hospital, and later inside The Altar Church.
4. He Returned Home to Idaho After Working as a Street Minister in California
Remington graduated from Coeur d’Alene High School and then moved to California, where he became a pastor in Loma Linda, according to the church’s website.
He worked as a street minster in San Bernardino and Los Angeles.
“It was there they became interested in street ministry and the people that are typically ignored; those who have problems with drugs, alcohol, and perversion,” the website says. “In 1985 they began taking people into their home to help them. That has since grown into their Mentor Home Ministry and Good Samaritan Rehabilitation. The street ministry days, from San Bernardino to L.A., taught Tim more about drugs and alcohol than all the education he ever had. Since that time he received his degree in counseling. To Tim however, the degree is much less meaningful than actually leading an addict to Jesus.”
He and his wife moved back to Coeur d’Alene and began The Altar Church more than 18 years ago.
5. The Suspect in the Shooting Served in the Marines & Is From Coeur d’Alene
Kyle Andrew Odom is wanted as a suspect in the shooting. (Coeur d’Alene Police/Facebook)
The suspect in the shooting, Kyle Andrew Odom, 30, remains on the loose. According to NBC News, police describe him as being a little more than 6 feet tall. He has short curly blond hair, a slim build and was wearing glasses.
Investigators also released a photo of the vehicle Odom is suspected to have used to flee from the shooting, a silver Honda:
(Coeur d’Alene Police)
According to his Facebook page, Odom served in the Marines from 2006 to 2010, leaving as a corporal. He is from Coeur d’Alene and studied biochemistry at the University of Idaho.
In a Facebook post, police said Odom is to be “considered armed and dangerous.”
Police have not released a motive for the shooting, but Remington has received threats from those he has helped with issues in the past, according to church staff.
Nancy Reagan Quotes: 10 of Her Most Memorable Sayings
Nancy Reagan, the former first lady, died Sunday at the age of 94. Here are some of her more memorable quotes to remember her by.
Click here to read more
is a reporter and editor for Heavy.com. Tom was a breaking news reporter at the Connecticut Post and an editor at the Register Citizen and New Haven Register. He can be reached by email at Tom.Cleary@Heavy.com. Follow him on Twitter @tomwcleary.
March 8, 2016 12:46 pm
Pastor Tim, prayers are with you. My suspicion is the assailant knew him. Pastor Tim’s life has been dedicated to serving those in need of alcohol and drug recovery. Over the years I’ve known him he has been one of the bravest and aggressive at reaching for and helping many in very undesirable situations. There’s is no doubt that he has a few critics and enemies. I recal a time where he was once practically body slammed to the hood of his car at an apartment in Kellogg Idaho by a man who was unwilling to let Tim bring a young lady to the rehabilitation treatment. As I remember it, Tim was full of mercy and grace even in a moment like that. The young lady did in fact go through the program and Tim never sought anything but the well being of the young man who assaulted him. Folks, all it takes for evil to overrun the world is for good people to do nothing. Pastor Tim Remington will absolutely not be one of those who sat on the side lines. Quick healing for you dear man of God. I’m sure if the individual(s) is caught, there will be a day where Tim will do all he can to help his position in this world and the next.
If someone is looking for a political motive in this, a Republican state legislator in the Spokane area received a death threat in January that was being investigated by the Washington State Patrol. Spokane is a short drive (33.5 miles on Google Maps) from Coeur d’Alene. Matt Shea got the threat after he visited the occupation-protest in Oregon.
I’m from Coeur d Alene. Let me tell you about Pastor “Touch em” Tim. Ole Tim ran a religious program thru his Altar church. The program acted as a kind of sentencing alternative to harsher penalties imposed by Kootenai & Bonner County Criminal Courts. People in the program needed to complete the program or face prison time. Completion of the program is high priority for its attendants. Now this program had a high number of drug addicted females that were easy prey for a authority figure that is in to rape and the like. Ole Touch em Tim had a nefarious reputation of taking advantage of the vulenerable women in his charge. Pastor Tim was a sexual predator and maybe that’s what got him shot. John Padula is Tim’s right hand man in running this program at the Altar. John found God around the same time he got a federal indictment for conspiracy to distribute meth……and told on all his co-defendants. John is one of the biggest rats in the Spokane/Coeur d Alene area. He also is known to take advantage and basically rape women in the program as well……maybe he is next on the list?
That’s the good shit! Thanks! I guessed it all had something to do with SEX, I just figured it was a closeted gay preacher thing too. But, you make perfect sense. Thanks again!
Of course you figured that, that is what the movies have put into your head, and now you expect it. And why is it bad to be gay anyway? Why is everyone allowed to be gay except him?
I didn’t read anything about a gay anybody. The Creature and his freak show friend were said to be taking advantage, (or as I like to say, RAPE) of their own private bevy of beauties who had no choice but to fall in line or pay the
Price. So, I may have missed it, but it looks like it was not gay rape, but plain old boring, everyday, run of the mill,……
RAPE. It’s been around since the dawn of time,…bad men, doing bad things to those weaker, smaller, unable to defend themselves. Bullies are almost always men,…mean, selfish, greedy, dirty, dumbass men, who think with the tiny heads of their itty bitty Dicks. I don’t hate all men, just the bullies who use their dicks like weapons. You
know who you are,… ya Dicks.
And your evidence against Tim for this is? (You know, police reports, arrest records, court records, etc. etc. In other words, verifiable and documented evidence — not merely heresay and stories…)
Produce that, and I won’t consider you a lying sack of s**t. Otherwise, you just have diarrhea of the mouth.
@Timov
His evidence is movies, in the movies the pastor is always bad.
Why are you so angry? Is there something you know that we (the public) doesn’t know? Are you fearful of Truth? One more question, HOW WOULD YOU KNOW IF THIS MAN IS TELLING THE TRUTH UNLESS TOUCHY FEELY TIM TOUCHY FEELY-ED YOU? Or are you a touchy feely kinda guy too? Shame on you and everyone else calling this man, (JOEL, not Tim), regardless of his unassociated past, a liar and attacking him. Do you honestly think the bad guys will wear a sign around their neck? Religious leaders are not automatically exempt from being creepy letches. You do know about the pedophiles and rapists in the Catholic church, right? I think they call them Pastors too… Stand down Bucko, and keep your eyes open and mouth shut. Your children may not be as safe as you think either.
I don’t understand why you would want to, but you’ve made all that up. I’ve known him for years. The court systems he works with including judges and prosecuting attorneys would never allow him to work in the court system if he had that kind of a reputation. You may hate the good things he stands for, and you may enjoy making good sound bad but his reputation will stand long after your false statements fade into the sunset.
I wondered why you would slander Remington like you did. Just googled your name in Coeur d’ Alene to find out you’ve been in the court systems yourself for racially charged problems including dropped hate crime charges….it’s amazing how you who state in the article that you were slandered and lied about are now slandering and lying about someone who is on their death bed no less….
Crime is only bad when pastors engage in them, otherwise it is cool.
He looks very sleazy in his photos. What’s with the shady eyeglasses, the scraggly beard, the gray combover, and the cheap tie? I do not get the sense ‘trustworthy’ when I look at him.
You would if her were someone working in a more politically correct sector.
Never judge a book by its cover. He doesn’t worry about his looks like you may. He spends most of his time and money dedicated to lifting people out of the gutters and returning them to be a productive member of society. Just because he may not spend a lot of money on his tie doesn’t make him a criminal. He’s about as trustworthy as they come.
Sounds like more of a television trope than anything else. If the women, or if anybody. claims sexual misconduct it is easily and automatically believed to be true. This is due to the ‘uncoolness’ of the whole ‘pastor’ thing. The trope: downtrodden= automatically good, pastor= bad by virtue of being who he is/ girls= truth always and uncool pastor= lies, always. But hey, you might actually be on to something. Hollywood tropes, like broken clocks, are right twice a day.
Joel is a criminal himself – arrested for hate speech when he attacked a black man with a baseball bat. Just google it
Actually, Joel was the one who was threatened with the bat. Joel was accused of using racial slurs in accosting a “suspicious black man” walking through his neighborhood. The charges were reduced to a misdemeanor and he was released after the accuser, who had his own criminal past, refused to testify.
Joel is also a two time felon and a racist. COEUR d’ALENE – A Coeur d’Alene man faces up to life in prison stemming from an alleged hate crime incident on Saturday.
Joel T. Diekhoff, 29, faces five years in jail and up to $5,000 on one count of felony malicious harassment – or hate crime. With two convicted felonies on his record, Diekhoff qualifies as a persistent offender, upping the possible incarceration term to life.
Magistrate Judge Penny Friedlander issued a $50,000 bond for Diekhoff, as well as a no-contract order with the alleged victim, Demetrius K. Lee, 39, during the suspect’s first court appearance Monday.
“The seriousness of the offense is significant here before the court,” the judge said. “I don’t think (the bond amount is) unreasonable.”
Diekhoff has two felonies on his record, including for theft in 2000 and a felon in possession of firearms in Washington in 2005.
Being a felon doesn’t make him a liar. Actually it means he’s probably more able to knew the truth and not hide it because “Tim couldn’t have done that, he’s a pastor”. Pull your heads outta your butts. Just because you haven’t been raped by him doesn’t mean he wouldn’t do it to others. At least realize there is the possibility without calling Joel a liar when you don’t know yourself if it’s true..
Ya, being a felon tells you he’s done something untrustworthy from the get go. It says he puts himself before others. So when he tries to smear a man whose done a lot of good things to help people, a man whose been villianously shot and they are detailing his fight for survival, don’t go posting hear say about garbage that you can’t back up…Tim Remington has a lot of people that can back up his heart and his character.
Joel Diekhoff…is a convicted two time felon… associated with the Aryan Nations…!!! Just google his name you’ll see what a looser he is!! You were probably one that was offered help and refused their help. We know the truth about Pastor Tim and John Padula… They are truly “Men of God” and have helped many, many people get back on track again and out of the drug addicted life! May God be with you!
You need to quit doing your own product, and get your heart right with God.
Can you produce police reports or depositions of victims. Otherwise you can be sued for slander. AND I HOPE YOU ARE.
I’ve heard the same and wouldn’t be shocked at all. You’re all so quick to bash him for mentioning it but I’ve heard from gals that have said these same things to me. When I was in jail he gave me the creeps the few times I met with him. Just because you may know the man doesn’t mean you can say for fact he didn’t do this to women in his program. It’s not as off he treats everyone this way or is open about it. Only women who are vulnerable and fear prison for leaving the program or retaliation for speaking up. That’s how a predator acts.
And you have nothing to say for sure either so quit trying to discredit someone you say only gave you the creeps from the other side of your jail cell…there are a lot of checks and balances that keep him from being what you are accusing him of. I’m sure all the drug addicts that don’t like his program will jump on board with you quickly because they can’t drop their habits and they’re mad at the world. I’ve seen them turn on him when they don’t get what they want. It amazes me how you can try to tell people that “you’re all so quick to bash Joel” when in reality, Joel was himself quick to bash without any evidence and you yourself are quick to bash with no evidence but only hear say and a feeling. Grow up and gain some compassion.
He is an oversexed alien. Open your minds….we are being watched by the all seeing eye and who do you think that is above our dollar bills?
God protects his disciples. It was not his time to go home yet more work to be done.
Poor guy. Politics gets people killed, rarely the politicians.
This shooter is deranged. Please pray for pastor Tim, and please pray for the deranged shooter to be given clarity and to be captured. If he cannot be captured then let the police kill him promptly to remove this cancer from society.
‘Idaho Pastor Miraculously Survives Shooting Ambush One Day After Giving Invocation at Ted Cruz Rally’ – Thats the headline in my email for this story… the two things have ZERO correlation. Ted Cruz does not bring miracles. Glad hes okay but dont write stupid titles.
Proof positive that there’s no god!
I wonder how Ted Crudd, and this guy think of their Rethuglican Bible, and their GUNZZZZ ablazing, maybe this guy along with Crudd will fight harder for more crazy people to carry GunZZZZ and shoot people up. After all their Rethuglican Bible they live by, tell them to assult women, take away womens rights to do as they please with their bodies and lives, if you are liberal, you are sure to burn in hell, they insult our President, believe that all Muslims are terrorists, beleive that poor people are lazy, they pass laws in their state to starve young children and their mothers, they vote to stop all educational programs for head start, I could go on but their Rethuglican bible, and gunzzzz did this, I hope they think about what they have done to the Americans they have given the onese teetering on crazy the OK to shoot people up.
Gain some compassion, this post isn’t about you and your talking points, it’s about how a man almost lost his life. And as far as your talking points go, ignorance doesn’t gain you credibility “anonymous”….foolish people like to hear themselves talk, and I’m guessing where ever your at, you still haven’t stopped talking.
Praying for Tim and his family. We’ve known him for over 20 years as a fellow pastor/wife. He’s fearless and passionate about leading people to the Lord and away from destructive lifestyles.
God Bless You and your family always
I think he may have been an alien from Mars.
Me too
Praying for Pastor Tim. He’s the real deal using the Word of God to teach the love, mercy and healing that only The truth of the Bible can teach.