A Louisiana pastor accused of beating a young neighbor says he was not looking for a fight, he was defending his family from a man who allegedly threatened to harm his loved ones.
The fight left Tony Spell, 48, pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in Central, facing a second-degree battery charge after police reviewed surveillance video of the clash with a 20-year-old neighbor.
Spell, who bonded out of jail Tuesday night, held a Wednesday news conference with church members behind him and defended the confrontation as an act of protection.
“He said, ‘Tony, I’m going to rape your wife, I’m going to rape all your grandchildren, and the next time you go out of town I’m going to kill them,’” Spell alleged during the press conference.
The pastor said the threat left him with no choice. “I have a duty and obligation to do what I did,” Spell said.
Spell framed the fight as a matter of family responsibility, telling reporters he could not stand by after hearing threats against his home.
“Number one, I’m a husband, number two, I’m a father, and number three, I’m a pastor who shepherds his flock.”
“I will not allow a man to murder my children when I’m gone,” he added.
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The neighbor’s family rejected that account. The Sherwin family disputed Spell’s version, telling WBRZ they did not believe their son made those threats.
‘The pastor is a bully who gets mad when he does not get his way,’ they said to the outlet.
WBRZ obtained footage that reportedly showed Spell coming across Hooper Road before the confrontation turned physical.
According to a KLFY-cited arrest affidavit, the encounter followed the victim yelling “f**k you” at Spell.
The affidavit alleged Spell landed eight punches before the man fell, then continued throwing punches and twisting his neck while appearing to scream: “I’m going to break your neck!”
A police report listed a broken bone beneath the alleged victim’s eye socket and stitches under his chin.
After his release from jail, Spell addressed the case from the pulpit and turned the alleged beating into a biblical punchline, drawing laughter and applause from congregants, according to WAFB.
“In my name, they shall lay hands on the sick. And they shall recover. So today, I fulfilled the scripture. I laid hands on the sick,” Spell said.
The pastor also claimed the conflict with the neighbors did not begin that day. Spell claimed church members had long complained about the people across the street.
“[Church members] are constantly stalked by these individuals across the street. They are constantly intimidated with threats of bodily harm,” he said.
Spell’s attorney, Jeffery Wittenbrink, blamed the confrontation on what he described as a breakdown by law enforcement.
“These folks have been pressing this and trying to instigate some kind of problem here at the church for years,” Wittenbrink stated. “Every man has his limits and it’s sad when you get pushed to that point.”
Central Police Chief Roger Corcoran pushed back against claims that authorities had ignored a long pattern of complaints about the neighboring family.
WAFB reported that Corcoran pointed to five incidents involving Spell or his wife in four years, only one of them tied to the neighbors. Spell is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 15.
Earlier this month in Detroit, another clergyman found himself in the middle of a violent crime scene when a suspected carjacker crashed near St. Joseph Shrine and tried to flee.
At St. Joseph Shrine, Rev. Canon Jean-Baptiste Commins said the trouble announced itself with squealing tires and a crash.
Police said the crash followed an attempted stop of a vehicle believed to be stolen.
Commins said he rushed over and spotted a one-shoed young man running from the wreck. The priest gave chase.
“I grabbed him and put him down,” he said. “He was resisting a lot, trying to run away, definitely, and so I had to, unfortunately, give him a few punches and hurt my hand a little bit — nothing major — but making sure that there was no threat, since I didn’t know if he had a gun, if he had a weapon.
“It was definitely, you know, suspicious behavior and probably guilty of the accident.”
Another church member helped hold the suspect until police arrived.
Once the suspect was under control, Commins turned back to the crash victim.
“I rushed back to the lady, to make sure, you know, if she needed the Anointing of the Sick or a blessing or something,” he said. “So I was there, too, with the medics, and she was not very responsive. But her eyes were twitching a little bit.”
The woman’s injuries were not life-threatening, police said, and the suspect was arrested while three others were detained.
In a separate Detroit case, a funeral service descended into chaos when a man allegedly aimed a handgun at a pastor inside New McFall Brothers Funeral Home.
Footage from the March 28 incident showed the moment mourners scattered after the weapon appeared, according to local reports.
WXYZ reported that the trouble started after Pastor Darthanian Nichols asked attendees to take their seats over fire-safety concerns.
Nichols alleged on Facebook that the deceased’s older brother ignored him, yelled obscenities, drew a gun and demanded he stop talking.
Nichols later said he thought he might be shot.
“In my mind, I braced myself for the worst case scenario, which would be to be shot,” Nichols told WXYZ. “Even as he pointed the gun, I don’t believe he was trying to point it. I think it was just more so his emotions, and he was talking with the gun in his hand.”
FOX 2 Detroit reported that officers who were already nearby arrested the suspect soon after.
Police said the gun was never fired. Officials were weighing felonious assault and felony firearm charges.
Detroit Police Capt. John Stewart said four more people were detained on separate weapons offenses.
At a press conference, Stewart praised Nichols for keeping control in a room that could have turned deadly.
“The pastor — the calm he kept and the way he handled himself — he’s a hero,” Stewart said.
