(CNN) — A Kentucky pastor who starred in a reality show about snake-handling in church has died of a snakebite.
Jamie Coots died Saturday evening after refusing to be treated, Middleborough police said. He was bit on the hand by a rattlesnake.
Coots appeared on the National Geographic reality show “Snake Salvation.” The ardent Pentecostal believer said that he believed that a passage in the Bible suggests poisonous snakebites will not harm believers as long as they are anointed by God.
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.