North Braddock, Pennsylvania — A shocking moment was caught on video Sunday when a man pulled a gun on a pastor in the middle of his sermon in North Braddock, Pennsylvania.
The gun did not go off and the man was wrestled to the ground.
He is now facing attempted homicide charges.
Video shows the heart stopping moment police say 26-year-old Bernard Polite walks toward the pastor at a North Braddock church and points a loaded gun at him during Sunday’s afternoon service.
"He pulled the gun it clicked. You heard him shoot it. It clicked. So, God jammed the gun so that the bullet didn't come out,” says Glenn Germany, pastor at Jesus’ Dwelling Place Church.
The small congregation had about 25 parishioners, including Germany’s daughter, when he says the man walked from the back of the church to the front pew.
"He stood up and he smiled at me, and it was just a smile. But he comes to right here and then all of a sudden that's when I see him pull the gun and all I can do is just duck and try to get out of the way."
That's when deacon Clarence McAllister jumped in.
The 63-year-old was behind the camera taping the service a few feet away.
"Once I saw a gun, I leaped out of my seat, and leaped over that railing and I tackled him down to the ground. The man had his back turned towards me, and I can see he'd never see me come in,” McCallister says.
Both men said they wrestled the gun from the suspect’s hands and held him down until police came.
Troopers took Polite, who's from Braddock, into custody.
Pastor Germany says the deacon is his hero, but McAllister says God was watching over him.
"God had his hands on the pastor. We weren’t letting him go anywhere."
Pastor Germany says Polite stated that voices in his head told him to shoot him.
"He said, ‘look, spirits were in my mind.’ He said they got my mind, and they told me to come in and shoot the pastor. He actually apologized to me. I told him that I forgave him and that I loved him.”
Police have confirmed that a dead body was also found inside Polite’s home Sunday night.
So far, no other details have been released concerning the investigation.
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