Man Beaten Outside Md. Church on Christmas Eve

A College Park church community marked a stunned holiday yesterday after a popular longtime member was robbed and severely beaten in the church parking lot just before midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

Wayne Williams, 69, was apparently accosted by at least one person in the parking lot of Holy Redeemer Catholic Church on Wednesday night and beaten in the head, possibly with a baseball bat, just after dropping off his wife at the church for choir practice, police and the church's pastor said.

After he was attacked, Williams stumbled through the parking lot, off Berwyn Road, to the front steps of the church's adjoining school before collapsing and calling 911 on his cellphone, said the Rev. George A. Wilkinson, the church's pastor.

A mother and daughter arriving for midnight Mass found him on the curb and rushed inside the church to alert the pastor, he said.

Williams was taken to Washington Hospital Center, where he remained in critical condition yesterday suffering from severe head wounds, authorities said.

Police handed out fliers after midday services at the church and canvassed the neighborhood yesterday evening but said they did not immediately have suspects.

Williams and his wife, Ginny, who live in Greenbelt, were described by fellow churchgoers as active and beloved community members. Wayne Williams is a church lector; Ginny has sung in the choir for years.

"They're just salt-of-the-earth people -- absolute pillars," said Jenee Chin, who sings in the choir with Ginny Williams.

Wilkinson said Holy Redeemer is largely made up of aging retirees, many of whom have been regular churchgoers at the nearly century-old parish for decades.

Wilkinson had arrived at the church about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday to prepare for services. After being alerted to Williams's condition, Wilkinson rushed outside, finding him bloodied and nearly unrecognizable.

"I asked him if he was Ginny Williams's husband, because I couldn't tell who he was," said Wilkinson, fighting back tears. "He said he was. That's how brutally he was beaten."

Williams was bleeding profusely, the flow exacerbated by blood-thinning medication he had been taking. He didn't say much, Wilkinson said, except that his wallet had been stolen.