Enlarge By Seth Perlman, AP On Monday, churchgoers and employees of the First Baptist Church, in Maryville, Ill., celebrated the memory of the Rev. Fred Winters. Another pastor at First Baptist, Mark Jones, said he received more than 1,000 e-mails of support.  CHURCHGOERS MOURN PASTOR  DOES LYME RAGE EXIST? Whether Lyme disease causes the kind of violence that killed a Maryville, Ill., pastor on Sunday was being debated Monday. The disease, a bacterial infection transmitted to humans by the bite of infected blacklegged or deer ticks, can spread to joints, the heart and the nervous system, the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control says. It can cause brain inflammation and in rare cases, problems with concentration, short-term memory and sleep. The CDC reported 27,444 cases in 2007. Gary Wormser, infectious diseases chief at New York Medical College, says he has not seen any evidence that psychiatric patients are more likely to have Lyme disease than other patients. Some patient-advocacy groups use the term "Lyme rage" to explain aggressive psychiatric symptoms. Paul Auwaerter, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins medical school, noted that the condition was even implicated in a chimp attack last month that severely injured a Connecticut woman. The animal was said to have Lyme disease. In humans, Auwaerter said, mental illness is much more common than Lyme disease, and it would be "extraordinarily rare" to develop a true psychosis from the disease.

Sunday morning, authorities said, the 27-year-old outdoorsman's behavior took a violent turn. Illinois prosecutors said he was the man who walked up the center aisle of First Baptist Church in Maryville, Ill., during the 8:15 a.m. service and shot the Rev. Fred Winters through the heart.

The State's Attorney's Office in Madison County charged Terry Sedlacek with first-degree murder for the death of Winters. They also charged him with aggravated battery; they say he stabbed two church members who tried to disarm him.

Sedlacek's mother and stepfather, with whom he lived, could not be reached. They have not spoken publicly since the tragedy. In an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in August, though, Ruth Abernathy, Sedlacek's mother, described a long illness that began with a tick bite in high school and changed her son forever.

She said he was misdiagnosed for years, and in 2003 he was so sick that he was given last rites.

Experts are divided over whether Lyme disease can cause mental illness.

Eugene Shapiro, a Lyme disease specialist at Yale University, said people do not get chronic mental illness from Lyme disease, but sometimes they are misdiagnosed and fail to get treatment "for the problems they really have."

"Lyme disease does not cause people to shoot people," he said.

Daniel Cameron, an internist in Westchester County, N.Y., where Lyme disease is common, said it can cause violent behavior. Cameron, president of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society, said he has had many patients with Lyme disease who complain of psychiatric problems, including anxiety and aggression.

Sedlacek's lawyer, Ron Slemer, told the Belleville News-Democrat on Monday that he has known Sedlacek's family for a long time. He said the family is "very sorry for the loss of Rev. Winters."

He said Sedlacek's mental and physical condition have been deteriorating.

The shooting created a buzz on the Internet among Lyme disease sufferers and called attention to the need for research to understand how the illness ravages the central nervous system, said Pat Smith, president of the Lyme Disease Association.

Investigators searched Sedlacek's house in Troy, Ill., and found his day planner, in which he had marked Sunday as "death day," state's attorney spokeswoman Stephanee Smith said.

Keith Melton, one of the men who disarmed the gunman, said in an interview that at first no one realized the danger.

The gunman walked in about 20 minutes after the service began as Winters, 45, the senior pastor, was reading from Psalm 128, Melton said. Winters, a married father of two, said to the man, "Good morning."

"Then he started shooting," Melton said. "No one heard him say a word."

Sedlacek fired four shots with a ..45-caliber handgun before the gun jammed, the State's Attorney's Office said.

One shot hit Winters' Bible. The pastor called out "Somebody help me" as he ran to a side aisle, the gunman following, Melton said. He grabbed the gunman by the waist and pushed him against a wall. The man raised his arm, now holding a knife, and stabbed Melton in the chest. Melton was treated later for a wound about an inch deep, he said.

The gunman crawled under a pew, where other men quickly held him down. During the struggle, the State's Attorney's Office said, the man stabbed parishioner Terry Bullard and then stabbed himself in the neck.

Bullard, 39, and the suspect remained in serious condition at St. Louis University Hospital on Monday night, spokeswoman Laura Keller said.

Autopsy results showed Winters was hit with one bullet that went through his heart, Madison County coroner Steve Nonn said Monday.

Smith said police found at least 30 rounds of ammunition on Sedlacek.

On Monday, churchgoers and employees celebrated the memory of the popular preacher. Another pastor at First Baptist, Mark Jones, said he received more than 1,000 e-mails of support.

Winters had expanded the church over 21 years from a few dozen members to 1,500. His life's work was spreading the word of God, Jones said.

"He died doing exactly what he believed passionately about."

Contributing: Janice Lloyd; The Associated Press