Pastor Larry Wright was giving a New Year’s Eve sermon at his church in Fayetteville, North Carolina, when a man with a rifle entered around 11:30 p.m.
As panic set in and some of the roughly 60 congregants began to scream and flee, Wright — a retired Army drill sergeant — stepped down from the podium to speak with the man.
"I asked him 'can I help you?'" Wright
told WRAL-TV. "[The gunman's] next words were 'can you pray for me?' When he said that, then I knew everything was going to be all right."
"I saw in his eyes hopelessness, hurt, pain, despair," said Wright.
The pastor, who is also a city councilman, said that several members of Heal the Land Outreach Ministries reported that they immediately thought the man was going to shoot up the church — another episode like the Charleston church shooting.
"If he was belligerent, I was going to tackle him," Wright, 57,
told the Fayetteville Observer, noting that he is 6-foot-2-inches and 230 pounds.
But instead, the man told the congregation that the Lord had told him to go to church before doing something bad.
Wright and four church deacons patted the man down, the was placed gun on the altar, and the group embraced. They prayed together, and asked the man to take a seat in the front row.
At the conclusion of the service, the man asked God for salvation.
"He gave his life to Christ," Wright said.
Churchgoers had phoned police when the man walked in carrying the rifle, and officers were waiting for hims after the service.
After being escorted away, the man returned a few days later to thank Wright and the congregation. He faces no charges in connection to the incident.
The man, who remains unidentified, said he is a military veteran struggling with PTSD, in part because he can't afford his medication. He said his wife was recently diagnosed with a debilitating disease, that they were struggling financially, and that the power had recently been shut off at his house.
The man also said he was a convicted felon, and was given the gun. He thought he could get rid of it at church without getting in trouble.
"I pray that he comes back and visits us. I’m not scared of him, not now," said church member Lucrecia Hall.
The church said they plan to baptize the man next Sunday.
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