OGDEN, Utah (AP) — It was a quiet part of the Father's Day Mass as about 300 people stood up in preparation for communion. A parishioner, known by many at the church as Ricky Jennings, entered through the glass doors in back, holding his wife Cheryl's hand. Seconds later, police say Jennings fired a single shot at the back of Cheryl's father's head, nearly killing him. The loud bang pierced the silence, sending people diving for cover beneath pews and the priest behind the altar. "It was echoing in my head so loud," said Rebecca Ory Hernandez, who was only a few feet away with her 5-year-old son. She grabbed the boy, threw him under the pew and got on top of him. She heard the pastor blurt out an expletive into his microphone. "I was waiting for another gunman," she said. The shooter ran from the church, the pastor and a half dozen other men close on his heels. Ory Hernandez and other parishioners went to James Evans. They used scarves and a shirt to help soak up the blood, and she cradled his head. His wife, Tara, who had been standing next to him, and others prayed. "I'm OK, I'm OK," Evans kept saying, as blood spilled from his mouth. Meanwhile, Charles Richard Jennings Jr., 35, stole a truck from a nearby neighbor at gunpoint and led police on a highway chase, police said. He was caught hours later on foot after the truck ran out of gas. As police try to determine why Jennings shot his father-in-law — police think he may have been drinking or on drugs and say the couple had a history of domestic disputes — the family is grateful for a small miracle. Evans, who turns 66 on Tuesday, was struck at the side of his head, the bullet going through near his ear and out his cheek and missing his brain, said Dr. Barbara Kerwin, the director of the intensive care unit at McDay-Dee Hospital in Ogden. "He turned his head just at the right time," his wife said Monday, crying at a hospital news conference. "If didn't turn his head, he would have been hit in the back of the head and he would have been dead." He was in critical condition Monday but doctors say he's expected to live, although he'll need reconstructive surgery and rehab to learn to swallow and speak again, Kerwin said. He was awake on Monday, nodding yes and no, writing and using hand signals to communicate. Jennings was booked on suspicion of attempted aggravated criminal homicide, aggravated robbery and possession of a firearm by a restricted user. Charges are expected to be filed Tuesday, and Jennings will appear by video for arraignment in Ogden, said Weber County deputy county attorney Dean Saunders. Court records show Jennings has a criminal record going back to 1996, when he pleaded no contest to several traffic-related misdemeanors. Over the years, he's pleaded no contest to felony charges of failing to yield to police and attempting to receive a stolen vehicle, and misdemeanor charges for traffic violations, criminal trespassing and theft. He's also pleaded guilty to theft charges and a felony charge of attempting to tamper with a witness or juror. Authorities don't expect to file any charges against Jennings' wife. She was not at Monday's news conference with her mother and another sister at the McDay-Dee Hospital in Ogden. It's not clear whether she knew her husband had the gun, or what she did after he shot her father on Sunday. After paramedics rushed James Evans to the hospital, the Rev. Erik Richtsteig returned to the brick church that sits on the east side of Ogden at the foot of a steep rock mountain called Jumpoff Canyon, surrounded by middle-class houses with manicured lawns and rose bushes. As doctors operated on James Evans, who had recently accompanied the priest on a trip to the Holy Land in Jerusalem, Richtsteig told his congregation who the shooter was, and asked them to pray for the couple and their 3-year-old son. Then, for those who stayed, he finished the Mass, explaining his reasons matter-of-factly, Ory Hernandez said. "Evil will not prevail," Richtsteig said. The congregation is shaken, Richtsteig said Monday: "They were a mess — they were worshipping God and this man came in and did an act of violence." Ory Hernandez says she has cried, enraged that violence came to the house of worship, and was at a loss for words when her son told her, "I didn't know there were any bad guys in this town, mommy." But it won't stop her from coming back to church. "The bad guy doesn't get to win this time," she said.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Sprint is suing to stop Dish Network's buyout of wireless data network operator Clearwire. The nation's third-largest cellphone carrier said the proposed deal violates the rights of Sprint and other Clearwire shareholders. Dish has offered to pay $4.40 per share for Clearwire, which has recommended that its shareholders approve the offer. That reverses its earlier stance in support of a takeover bid by Sprint, its majority shareholder. Sprint, headquartered in Overland Park, Kan., has bid $3.40 per share for the minority stake in Clearwire it doesn't already own. Dish Network Corp., based in Englewood, Colo., a satellite broadcaster, has said its offer is contingent on being able to buy 25 percent of the company. But Sprint Nextel Corp. said late Monday that Dish cannot complete its offer without the approval of holders of at least 75 percent of Clearwire's shares. Sprint also contends that the deal violates shareholder rights under Clearwire's charter and an equity holders' agreement. Sprint's complaint, filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery, asks the court to prevent Dish's offer from being consummated. Clearwire is incorporated in Delaware. Representatives with Dish and Clearwire did not immediately return calls seeking comment Tuesday morning from The Associated Press. Earlier this month, Sprint had sent an open letter to Clearwire's board saying the conditions of Dish's offer are illegal and violate Clearwire Corp.'s shareholder agreement. But Dish said in a separate letter that its offer was "carefully designed to comply with applicable law and the existing rights of Clearwire stockholders including Sprint." Clearwire Corp. is based in Bellevue, Wash.

ATLANTA (AP) — Fewer U.S. adults are smoking, a new government report says. Last year, about 18 percent of adults participating in a national health survey described themselves as current smokers. The nation's smoking rate generally has been falling for decades, but had seemed to stall at around 20 to 21 percent for about seven years. In 2011, the rate fell to 19 percent, but that might have been a statistical blip. Health officials are analyzing the 2012 findings and have not yet concluded why the rate dropped, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The CDC released its study Tuesday. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable illness and death in the United States. It's responsible for the majority of lung cancer deaths and is a deadly factor in heart attacks and a variety of other illnesses. Concerned about the stalled smoking rate, the CDC launched a graphic advertising campaign last year that was the agency's largest and starkest anti-smoking push. The campaign triggered an increase of 200,000 calls to quit lines, and CDC officials said thousands of smokers probably went on to kick the habit. The CDC did a second wave of the ads earlier this year. The new report is from a survey of about 35,000 U.S. adults. Current smokers were identified as those who said they had smoked more than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime and now smoke every day or some days. The rate was only 9 percent for people ages 65 and older, but about 20 percent for younger adults. More men than women described themselves as current smokers. The report did not include teens. About 16 percent of high school students were smokers in 2011, according to an earlier CDC report. Patrick Reynolds, executive director of the Foundation for a SmokeFree America, told The Associated Press that he was elated that the adult smoking rate, for years at about 20 percent, had dropped below that longstanding plateau. He said factors he thinks have contributed to fewer adults smoking include rising state and federal tobacco taxes, more spending on prevention and cessation programs, and more laws banning smoking in public. "This is a real decline in smoking in America. I'm ecstatic about it. It's proof that we are winning the battle against tobacco," he said by telephone from Los Angeles.