Jim Adkisson, 58, was charged with first-degree murder after Sunday's shooting at the Knoxville church.
Jim Adkisson's neighbors in a Knoxville suburb described him as quiet and helpful, but sensitive about certain topics.
"I was telling him about my daughter graduating from Bible college and I was a Christian and stuff, and he just automatically almost turned angry," neighbor Karen Massey told WVLT-TV, a CNN affiliate.
"He was angry with his parents because they had made him go to church all his life," she told the station.
"When the subject of religion came up, it set off like a light in him or something I noticed," Massey told WATE-TV, another CNN affiliate. "And at that point I thought I'd never bring up religion again."
Adkisson, 58, is charged with first-degree murder after the shooting at a Unitarian church during a children's play Sunday morning, officials said. 
The gunman killed two adults and wounded seven others before being overpowered by congregants, authorities said.
One of the victims, Linda Kraeger, 61, died at a hospital several hours after the shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, Knoxville municipal spokesman Randall Kenner said.
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Also killed was Greg McKendry, a 60-year-old usher and board member at the church, police said earlier in the day.
Five others were hospitalized in either critical or serious condition, police said. Two other people hurt in the attack were treated and released, Owen said. iReport.com: Are you there? Share photos, video, accounts
Adkisson is not believed to have been a member of the Knoxville church, and investigators have not determined a motive for the shooting, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen said.
"[The motive] is one thing we're obviously aggressively pursuing," Owen said.
Massey and another neighbor said Adkisson was quiet and kept to himself.
"He never went anywhere. He never had anybody over. Just, it was really quiet. He rode a motorcycle and you know he would go out on the weekends on his motorcycle, but other than that, you never heard from him," Melissa Coker told WVLT-TV.
Coker told The Associated Press that Adkisson had been a truck driver, but she didn't think he'd been working steadily in the past six months.
"He's just a really, really nice guy," Coker told the AP.
Adkisson's landlord said she did not know him well enough to make any comments on his character but said he was a good tenant who paid his bills, according to CNN affiliate WBIR-TV.
Church member Barbara Kemper told the AP that McKendry "stood in the front of the gunman and took the blast to protect the rest of us."
Owen told reporters he couldn't comment on whether McKendry confronted the gunman, but he said McKendry apparently "was the first person [the gunman] encountered" in the sanctuary.
Members of the church said a man entered the building about 10:15 a.m. and began shooting during a children's production of the musical "Annie." About 200 people in the church were watching the production, which was being put on by 25 children, the AP reported.
No child was shot, and a few church members subdued the man and held him until officers arrived, police said. Church members said one of the tacklers was John Bohstedt, a man who had a part in the musical, the AP reported.
"This was a day the church was looking forward to for a long time, and it turned into a nightmare," Bohstedt told WBIR-TV.
Ken Kitts said he arrived late and saw a couple and a child running out of the church at "super-fast speed."
"Then everybody else started pouring out of the church, lots of them in costume from this show they were putting on," he said.
Inside, he said, was a scene of "absolute chaos," including wounded people and the gunman, who was pinned to the floor by church members.
"He was face-down in the middle of a bunch of shotgun shells rolling around on the floor," Kitts said.
Owen said investigators are looking into whether Adkisson has a criminal history. Bail was set at $1 million late Sunday.
"We don't know this particular individual. We may never know why," said Steve Drevik, a church member who arrived after the shooting. "All of this will come out in the next couple of days."
Rick Lambert, the FBI agent in charge of the bureau's Knoxville office, said federal agents are assisting Knoxville police with witness interviews and could help analyze evidence from the crime scene. He said the bureau is examining whether the attack was a hate crime.
"Anytime there is a shooting in a church, there is the possibility it could be a hate crime," he said.
The church, on its Web site, describes itself as a community that has worked for social change -- including desegregation, women's rights and gay rights -- since the 1950s.
Police said people were recording videos of the children's performance when the shooting happened, and investigators were reviewing the videos. Information on what, if anything, the videos show of the shooting wasn't immediately available.
The church's minister, Chris Buice, said he was on vacation when the shooting happened but rushed back when he heard what occurred. Sunday afternoon -- after McKendry's death but before Kraeger's -- he spoke briefly to reporters.
"Please pray for this congregation, because we are grieving the loss of a wonderful man," Buice said as he choked back tears.
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