King's Mother Was Also Slain by a Bullet

Marcus Wayne Chenault Jr. got up from the front pew, pulled out two pistols, and started shooting on June 30, 1974, during a Sunday service inside Ebenezer Baptist Church, where 69-year-old Alberta Williams King was playing the organ. King was murdered by one of the gunshots, just a few feet from the spot where her son had advocated nonviolence. Despite having received heavenly instructions to kill King's father, who was a member of the church, the psychotic gunman claimed that Christians were his enemies and that he killed King's mother instead of her because she was closer. Additionally, a church deacon died in the shooting. Due in part to the King family's objection to the death penalty, Chenault's death sentence was eventually commuted to life in prison.

He decided to shoot Alberta instead because she was closer to the attacker and played the organ on Sundays at Ebenezer Baptist Church. The defendant was found guilty and given the death penalty; however, because King's family opposed the death penalty, the sentence was later commuted to life in prison.