Joel Shrum
A tow-truck driver gets ready to haul away a vehicle that was reportedly being driven by Joel Wesley Shrum, a Donegal High School graduate, when two men on a motorcycle shot and killed him in Yemen. Shrum was a teacher in Yemen.
The ongoing violence in Yemen has claimed the life of a former Mount Joy man who was gunned down in his car Sunday on the way to teach English to poor residents.
A group tied to al-Qaida is claiming responsibility for the killing of Joel Wesley Shrum, 29, a former football star at Donegal High School, according to news reports.
In a text message sent to journalists in Yemen, the group claimed Shrum was a missionary trying to convert Muslims to Christianity, making him an enemy to Islam.
A motorcycle carrying two gunmen dressed in military uniforms pulled next to Shrum's car. The men opened fire and then sped away, according to news reports.
Shrum had been in the central Yemeni city of Taiz since 2010 with his wife, the former Janelle Donnette Miller of Harrisburg, and their two sons, who are 1 and 4.
Shrum worked for the International Training Development Centre, a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that has been in the city for more than 40 years.
It is one of the oldest foreign-language institutes in the impoverished Arab country and partners with the Yemeni government.
It has an international staff that offers vocational training to poor communities.
The organization denied that Shrum did any proselytizing.
In a statement, the ITDC said, "Joel S. was a very professional employee who highly respected the Islamic religion."
The ITDC staff is made up of Muslims and Christians, according to the organization. Muslim students are highly respected and observe religious prayers on the property, and religious and political debates are not permitted on the grounds, according to the press statement.
"ITDC is calling on the Yemeni people to rise up and reject this hatred and violence in their country," the statement says.
The ITDC facility shut down after Shrum's killing.
"The security of the foreign staff members is being addressed," according to the press statement.
The Wall Street Journal reported that two students who attended classes at the ITDC institute said Shrum had strong religious beliefs and wasn't afraid to talk about his Christianity, making him stand out.
The second-largest city in Yemen has been a focus of the country's recent anti-government protests.
Extensive damage was sustained by the ITDC facility during clashes between government and tribal forces in early December. It closed for a week.
Shrum's father, James D. Shrum, a former Mount Joy resident who lives in Harrisburg, said Sunday night that his son "loved his job."
"He was just motivated by especially seeing people coming out of poverty," he said.
Joel Shrum's mother, Lynda, had spoken with her son on Friday, and the two families were planning a vacation together in Myrtle Beach, S.C., this summer.
At Donegal High School, Shrum was a standout football player, earning first- team All Lancaster-Lebanon League honors on both offense and defense in 1999.
He was captain of the 1999 team, one of the few juniors ever voted that honor.
Shrum's former coach at Donegal, Gayne Deshler, remembered Shrum and his younger brother, Justin, "as the kind of kids that hung on every word. They were more about the team than themselves."
He said the two brothers and other family members went to South America and Mexico for church-related work.
"That was my big worry when I heard they were going to these places," he said after learning of Shrum's killing Sunday night.
"They were the kind of family you could see doing that because they were always more interested in other people than themselves," he said.
Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era wire services contributed to this report.
