Man Opens Fire into a Michigan Church, Deacon Runs Him Over with a Truck to Stop the Attack
After the attacker was slowed by the hit, a security guard at CrossPointe Community Church in Wayne shot and killed him
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NEED TO KNOW
- A shooting at CrossPointe Community Church in Wayne, Michigan, on June 22 injured one person
- The attack ended with a deacon running the male shooter over and a church security guard fatally shooting him
- The church’s pastor said the shooter did not appear to be a member of the congregation
After a man opened fire on a Sunday service in Michigan, a church deacon and security guard stepped in to stop him.
On the morning of June 22, there was an active shooter at CrossPointe Community Church in Wayne, a Detroit suburb, according to a spokesperson for the Wayne Police Department (WPD). A church security guard shot and killed the attacker before officers arrived on the scene, the spokesperson told PEOPLE.
The security guard had time to take aim at the shooter — whom police identified as a 31-year-old White male — because a deacon ran him over, according to the pastor, who was on the scene.
The attacker “was run over by one of our members who saw this happening when he was coming into church,” Senior Pastor Bobby Kelly Jr. told Detroit News. The deacon ran over the attacker in a Ford F-150 truck, the outlet reported.
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Only one person, whom Detroit News identified as a security guard, was injured in the June 22 attack. According to the local outlet, the shooter fired multiple shots into the church, but did not enter the building, where Kelly estimated that 150 people were gathered.
Footage from a livestream of the service — which had more children in attendance than usual, per Kelly — shows the moment when those inside the church became aware of the attack.
“Get down,” someone can be heard saying, as people began to scramble. “Everybody to the back. Please, everybody, come to the back,” a different church leader then states, directing the group to the rear of the building.
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In the wake of the attack, Kelly told Detroit News that CrossPointe Community Church members are supporting each other, and the children present for the June 22 attack are “doing good.”
As for the path forward, the pastor said, “We will be convening our leadership to put a formal plan in place for the aftermath.”
The pastor also said the attacker did not appear to be a member of the church.
The investigation into the shooting is “ongoing with multiple agencies on scene,” a spokesperson for the WPD told PEOPLE, adding that police will share more information in the evening of June 22.
