A Pennsylvania man attempted to shoot a pastor while he was preaching to his congregation from the pulpit on Sunday and it was all caught on video.
God “told” a Pennsylvania man to fire at a preacher
Bernard Junior Polite, 26, entered the church with the intention of gunning down Pastor Glenn Germany because “God told him to do it.”
Glenn told WTAE that he had never seen Polite, who kept walking in and out of the church on Sunday, before he attempted to assassinate him in front of his flock and a live-stream audience.
The pastor said that he had just begun his sermon, when he saw Polite walk from the back of the church to the front right corner, then grin and aim a firearm at him.
“All of a sudden, I just saw a gun pointing right at me. And at that point, all I could try to do is run for cover,” Germany told the local news outlet.
A video recording of the incident captured the moment Polite aimed the gun at the pastor and and tried to fire, but in a case of what Germany believes was divine intervention, the weapon “failed to discharge.”
“I’m thankful to God that I’m still here, because he definitely pulled the trigger,” Germany acknowledged.
“He pulled the gun; it clicked,” he recalled. “You heard him shoot it. God jammed the gun so the bullet didn’t come out.”
After the failed shooting, Deacon Clarence McCallister sprung into action and tackled Polite to the ground. It took the efforts of both Germany and McCallister to strip the gun out of the suspect’s hands.
“Once I seen a gun, then I leaped out of my seat and leaped over that railing, and I tackled him down to the ground,” McCallister said about the incident. “The man had his back turned towards me and I could see he would never see me coming.”
Pastor Germany said that McCallister is the hero of the story. “He could have lost his life in that struggle, but he sacrificed himself for everyone.”
McCallister doesn’t agree. “God had his hands on the pastor,” the deacon noted. “He wasn’t letting him go nowhere.”
Prior to Polite being taken into custody by the authorities, the pastor had a conversation with the would-be shooter, who expressed his remorse.
“He said, ‘The spirits were in my mind,’” Germany recounted. “‘They got in my mind and told me to shoot the pastor.’”
In true Christian fashion, the pastor forgave Polite of his trespasses. “He actually apologized to me,” he commented. “I told him that ‘I forgive you and want you to know I love you,’ but yes, I definitely forgave him.”
Polite told the police that he tried to shoot Germany because he believed it was ordered from up high, and wanted to take a breather in jail to “clear his mind,” according to WTAE.
Polite will have plenty of time with his thought after being charged with aggravated assault and attempted homicide.
Pennsylvania man’s relative may be second victim
Sadly, Germany probably wasn’t the suspect’s only victim. When police searched Polite’s residence on Sunday night, they found the body of 56-year-old Derrek Polite, who had been shot.
Neighbors were shocked by the discovery, as there had been no known prior issues between the pair, who appeared to have lived together.
“Nothing bad has ever happened in that home. There were no domestic violence, no fights, no argument that we know of that we could ever have heard,” a neighbor commented.
While charges have yet to be filed in the case of Derrek Polite’s death, the Pennsylvania man is currently being held in the Allegheny County Jail without bond and will appear in court sometime this month.
