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A pastor’s swift thinking led to a gunman being disarmed during a New Year’s Eve prayer service at a small eastern North Carolina congregation, according to the Fayetteville Observer.

No one was injured during the shocking event that came about as Larry Wright, pastor of the Heal the Land Outreach Ministries in Fayetteville, North Carolina, was praying with about 60 parishioners as they rang in the New Year and spoke about the senseless deaths affecting our country. Suddenly, a man armed with a rifle walked into his church, writes the news outlet.


Pastor Wright joined Roland Martin on NewsOne Now to discuss his encounter with the would be gunman. Watch their conversation in the video clip below.

TV One’s NewsOne Now has moved to 7 A.M. ET, be sure to watch “NewsOne Now” with Roland Martin, in its new time slot on TV One.


The gun was in “one hand and an ammo magazine with shiny rounds in the other,” Wright told CNN.

From CNN

The glint made the retired Army sergeant first class recognize the weapon was real. Still, he was worried the man had one round in the gun.

“I’m the first person to see him and when I saw him, I thought it was a dummy gun, but then I saw the bullet clip in his hand and the bullets were shining,” he said.

[…]

Wright told the newspaper that if the man was antagonistic, he was going to use his 6-foot-2, 230-pound body to tackle the newcomer.

Instead of an altercation, the man asked the church to pray for him. Then a deacon and three others hugged the man, the site reports.

He then apologized to them, saying “he intended to do something terrible that night. But the Lord spoke to him,” writes the news outlet.

Via the Observer:

Police Department spokesman Lt. David McLaurin said the incident was noted as a “Call for Service.’’ Notes regarding the call, McLaurin said, indicated the man was taken to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center at his request as a voluntary commitment.

This was truly a holiday miracle. Who could forget what happened over the summer at Emanuel AME in Charleston, South Carolina when a stranger asked to join a prayer group?

SOURCE: Fayetteville Observer, CNN | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty, Twitter

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NEWS ROUNDUP: President Obama To Participate In Town Hall On Gun Control…AND MORE

North Carolina Pastor Disarms Gunman During Sermon On Violence  was originally published on newsone.com