Kentucky’s Pastor Jamie Coots who starred in a reality show about snake-handling in church has died — of snakebite.
Pastor Coots died Saturday evening after refusing to be treated, Middleborough police said.
A press release from the Middlesborough Police Department said someone called first responders at about 8:30 p.m. on Saturday regarding a snake-bite victim at a church.
When the ambulance arrived, they were told that Jamie Coots had gone home. Contacted at his house, Coots refused medical treatment.
Emergency workers left at a little after 9:00 p.m. When they returned about an hour later, Coots was dead.
Coots was a third-generation “serpent handler” and aspired to one day pass the practice and his church, Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name, on to his adult son, Little Cody.
The National Geographic show featured Coots and cast handling all kinds of poisonous snakes — copperheads, rattlers, cottonmouths. The channel’s website shows a picture of Coots, goateed, wearing a fedora.
