R.I. pastor dies in Iraq shooting

PROVIDENCE -- A missionary from Rhode Island was shot to death and ministers from three other Northeast churches were injured over the weekend when gunmen ambushed their vehicle in Iraq, family members said.

The Rev. John Kelley, 48, was killed Saturday near Baghdad when a white sedan pulled up alongside the car he was riding in and opened fire, said Roland Vukic, of Charlestown, a member of Curtis Corner Baptist Church, where Kelley was a pastor for 18 years.

Two other men -- the Revs. David Davis, of the Grace Bible Baptist Church in Vernon, Conn., and Kirk DiVietro, a pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Franklin, Mass. -- were injured in the attack, their families said.

"Apparently, a car pulled out from behind them and emptied two magazines into the car," said Kate Pettit, 30, of Wrentham, Mass., who is DiVietro's daughter. "My dad was sitting behind the driver . . . He took some shrapnel on the back of his head and his hand."

Pettit said the driver of the vehicle, who was not injured, immediately took the passengers to a hospital.

Pettit said she spoke with her 51-year-old father on Saturday. "He's doing well," she said. "His injuries are very minor compared to what they could be. He seems to be in a very good frame of mind."

DiVietro should be back in the United States on Friday, Pettit said. He had never been to Iraq before, she said, but traveled to Jordan this past August for two weeks to do some training.

Davis, who has been a pastor at Grace Bible Baptist Church since 1983, suffered minor injuries, according to his wife, Dorothy.

"I talked to him Saturday and briefly this morning," she said yesterday. "I don't really know all the particulars, just that it was minor."

She said her husband has not been in Iraq long. He was not hospitalized, she said, and will be returning to Connecticut soon.

A minister from Newburgh, N.Y., was also wounded, according to Vukic, who said he was told of the ambush in a phone call Saturday from another pastor in Iraq.

The US military in Baghdad confirmed yesterday that gunmen killed an American Baptist minister from Rhode Island and wounded three other pastors.

"Pastor Kelley was willing to give his life so that people would hear the message that Jesus had. He was just that kind of man," Vukic said.

The ministers were part of a group of about 10 religious leaders that went to Iraq on Feb. 6 to help set up a church there, said Vukic, who is also acting as a spokesman for the Kelley family.

The ministers expected to be in the country for two weeks.

US paratroopers learned of Saturday's attack while conducting a patrol in the town of Mahmudiyah, about 15 miles south of Baghdad, and were told the Americans were being treated at a hospital there.

Vukic described Curtis Corner in South Kingstown as an independent, fundamentalist Baptist church whose members regularly "preach the Gospel" in their communities and seek to establish new churches around the world.

The small parish of 120 people is very close knit, he said. "It's so sad, such a shock," he said.

"We're really grieved," added Sam Stricklin, a pastor at First Baptist Church in Warwick. "Pastor Kelley was a really good guy. He was what every pastor should be -- a great family man, very genuine, worked hard for his parish."

Kelley leaves a wife and four children. A message left at their home was not immediately returned.

Globe correspondent Jared Stearns contributed to this report. Material from the Associated Press was also used.