Local News

WHEATON, Minn. (AP) ― A father whose young daughter was fatally hit with a baseball bat when two men stormed a prayer group in western Minnesota said Saturday that one had been the best man at his wedding.

Claude Hankins, whose 14-month-old daughter Aundrea died at a hospital a few hours after Thursday's attack in Wheaton, said he had a falling out with Darryl Kennedy after his wedding last month but thought the bad blood was behind them. The attack stemmed from a dispute Hankins had with the other suspect over a washer and dryer.

Hankins said his wife was "a mess" over the toddler's death and he wanted both men severely punished.

"I haven't really stopped crying about it," Hankins told The Associated Press. "She was a real vision of purity. Just a child."

Kennedy, 43, and the man accused of wielding the bat, David Collins, 56, were arrested on charges of second-degree assault after the incident inside Thy Kingdom Come Church.

Both men remained jailed Saturday and were scheduled to be in court Tuesday morning, according to the Traverse County Sheriff's Office. A deputy at the jail said the men didn't have attorneys and weren't allowed to speak with reporters.

Investigators have provided few details about the case, but the church's pastor, Rev. Danny Barnes, said Collins was upset that he gave a washer and dryer to Hankins instead of to him. Hankins and Barnes claimed that Kennedy provided the bat.

"It's really shocking that he would give him the weapon to actually come after me," Hankins said. "I'd had problems with him in the past but I thought they were over with."

Collins' wife said Saturday that her husband didn't see the baby standing there, and when he realized what happened he wanted to take his own life.
"My husband's not a violent man," she said. "He loved that baby."

A phone number listed for a Darryl Kennedy in Wheaton was disconnected.
The church in Wheaton, a town of about 1,400 in western Minnesota, caters in part to people with drug and alcohol addictions. The people who gathered Thursday were praying for a sick member, Barnes said.

Barnes said he recently provided a washer and dryer to Hankins, 34, who moved to Wheaton from Pensacola, Fla. about eight months ago. He said the decision upset Collins.

Collins confronted Hankins on Thursday afternoon and the two scuffled, leaving Collins with an eye swollen shut, according to both Hankins and Collins' wife. Witnesses believed the matter was over, Barnes said.

Collins later met up with Kennedy, who had been removed from the church several times because of repeated problems with alcohol, Barnes said. He said both men appeared to be under the influence of alcohol when they arrived at the church.

"I've known him for eight months and he's never had any violent tendencies," Barnes said of Collins. "But vodka and foolish friends cost him his life, possibly, and certainly the life of this baby."

Barnes said Collins charged into the church swinging the bat and Hankins picked up a chair to defend himself. The first swing struck Aundrea in the head, Hankins said.

Kennedy, armed with a two-by-four, arrived moments after the fight ended, Barnes said.

"The whole thing was 30, 40 seconds," he said.

Traverse County sheriff's deputies said Saturday that Kennedy was "talked down" and arrested, and Collins later surrendered.

Aundrea's funeral was scheduled for Wednesday.

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"From when I first heard about it until it was done, I just tried to minister to my congregation and the people the church, which was both the victims and the perpetrators," Pastor Barnes said.

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