Worshippers in Laconia found a bullet hole in their church pulpit yesterday.

The bullet itself, a 9 millimeter, was soon discovered in a window frame on the other side of the building, the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, according to congregants and church staff.

"I'm at the point right now where I can joke about it and say we have our own little 'CSI: Laconia' going on over there," interim Pastor David Hackmann said several hours after the discovery.

Marcia Feener, a churchgoer from Franklin, said she was attending the 10:15 a.m. Sunday service when she saw what appeared to be a gouge in the wood pulpit.

"So, when I went up for communion, I passed by and I paused to take a better look to see what it was. I could see it was hole," she said. "And, of course, my curiosity got the best of me."

Feener and other churchgoers inspected the hole after the service. Soon, she said, she found the bullet in the molding around the window.

It appears the bullet broke through the wall facing Parade Road and whizzed across the length of the building, churchgoers said.

"It was kind of a surprise — not something you would expect to see in a church," said Ron Garnett, president of the church's parish council.

Sgt. Sharon Cavanaugh said the Laconia Police Department is investigating the shooting. At this time, she said, it does not appear that the church was the target of a hate crime.

"It doesn't appear to be anything related to the church, specifically," she said.

Police cannot be sure when the shooting occurred but suspect it happened within the last week. No one noticed the hole during the previous week's services, Hackmann said.

"As far as I'm concerned, it was a random kind of a thing," the interim pastor said. "I have no reason to think otherwise."

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Laconia Police Department at 524-5252 or the Greater Laconia Crime-Line at 524-1717.