SUFFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A Suffolk church bishop is giving the credit to God after a shooting during Sunday service at his church in Whaleyville left him with a minor injury but did not injure anyone else. The alleged shooter was detained by members of the congregation and was arrested.
At approximately 12:15 p.m. Sunday, the Suffolk Emergency Communication Center received a call for gunshots fired in the 6300 block of Whaleyville Boulevard at the Divine Church of Deliverance and Transformation Holiness, police said.
According to court documents, 24-year-old Tremonte Smith entered the church in the middle of a service and walked up to the side stage, where Bishop Brian Outlaw and seven other church members were.
Smith could be seen on surveillance video approaching Outlaw and leaning into him before a struggle ensued. During the struggle, a single gunshot was heard.
Following the gunshot, Smith was tackled to the ground by security at the church. Security then took a Taurus G3 firearm from Smith’s possession, the documents state. Outlaw suffered a minor injury to his hand during the shooting, according to court documents.
Outlaw told police he went into “war mode” after noticing Smith pointing a gun to his stomach, stating that he grabbed the gun and attempted to push it away before it discharged near his feet, the documents state. Smith told police a similar version of events, but stated he did not intend to harm anyone during the incident. He told police he knew the gun was loaded, that he is trained to use firearms, and that he “knows what happens when someone gets shot.”
“Basically, I grabbed the gun and kept holding it down to the ground so he wouldn’t pick up on it,” Outlaw said. “I kept holding it down where he had his hand on the trigger, and I just grabbed the barrel and kept holding it down to the floor, and that’s when it went off, and that’s when my security team took over.”
Smith was detained in the church by the congregation until Suffolk Police arrived. Upon arrival, officers took him into custody regarding the incident.
“We were rassling the gun to the ground,” Outlaw said, “kept my weight to the ground, kept it to the ground … when the gun went off while I was pushing it to the ground. It was really hot, like a hot plate. He wasn’t talking, and neither was I.”
Smith was then charged with second-degree attempted murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and discharging a firearm in an occupied building.
No other injuries were reported.
Outlaw thinks God was in the church and protected those from harm’s way.
“And I give God all the praise,” Outlaw said. “I do not take any credit for it, and I give all that to God. I give God all that. Well, if it were not for him, I would not have been here today.”
God was there, he said, so no one got hurt.
“No one in the congregation got hurt,” Outlaw said. “He didn’t get hurt. I just give God all the praise, where it could have turned another way, but it did not.”
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