N.C. church mourns pastor killed on way home from golf trip

At least 7 others were hurt in crash near Lancaster

From staff reports

Members of the Southpoint Free Will Baptist Church in Belmont, N.C., are mourning the loss of their pastor, the Rev. Ronnie Wilson, who was killed Saturday when the church van he was driving crashed near Lancaster.

Seven people were injured seriously in the three-vehicle wreck on S.C. 903 in Antioch, east of Lancaster.

Church members gathered at the church, the pastor's home and Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte after learning about the accident.

Find out more about area fatal crashes

Sunday's church services were canceled, but the church remained open while deacons met, and many in the congregation came and prayed.

Church leaders did not make an official statement but asked for prayers for Wilson's family and the church family.

Wilson, who has led the congregation since 1999 and helped construct a new church building in 2005, was with four men heading back from an annual men's golf retreat in Myrtle Beach at about 4:20 p.m. Saturday.

Investigators still were trying to identify and notify the family members of the men in the church van and would not identify them.

Lance Cpl. Jeff Gaskin of the Highway Patrol said the man who was killed was driving a 2004 Chevy passenger van headed west. A 1995 Ford 150 pickup pulling a trailer lost a tire. The driver of the church van swerved to avoid the tire and crashed head-on into a 2000 Ford pickup.

The two people in the 2000 Ford weren't wearing seat belts. Both men — Moses Waiters, 60, and 51-year-old Charles Taylor — were thrown from the truck. They were flown to Carolinas Medical Center.

Investigators identified the man in the truck that was pulling the trailer as Roy Hardis, 64, of York. Officers haven't identified the passenger in his truck, but both were wearing seat belts, and neither was taken to a hospital.

The highway was closed for several hours after the accident.

The Charlotte Observer and WSOC-TV contributed.