Machine Gun Preacher vs. Man With Brick

A violent scene unfolded during Sunday’s service at The City of God Church in westside Detroit. A man armed with a brick entered the church, threatened parishioners, and attacked the pastor. According to police, the pastor pulled out his Glock handgun and fired several shots at the man, killing him. The shooting took place inside the church on Grand River Avenue around 1:45 p.m.

“The pastor had had issues with the man before,” says Assistant Detroit Police Chief Steve Dolunt. “He had been threatening him to do bodily harm. He walked into the service and went after the pastor with a brick. The pastor pulled out his Glock and fired several shots. I think he hit him four or five times.” The man was taken to Botsford Hospital and pronounced dead.

Dolunt identified the attacker as Deante Smith, 25, well-known to the congregation, especially familiar to the pastor.

The 37-year-old pastor has not been arrested and is cooperating with authorities, Officer Jennifer Moreno said Monday.

“He was never in custody,” Moreno says. “He was just brought downtown (on Sunday) for questioning regarding the incident. He stayed a couple hours, cooperated fully, and went home.”

Police will submit a warrant request to prosecutors after questioning the pastor to decide whether the shooting was justified.

“We are not sure at this point whether the man had mental problems or what,” Dolunt said. “It is still under investigation.’

Authorities said the man has a history of threatening the pastor and members of the congregation. Smith had ranted on Facebook that his pastor had gotten his wife pregnant weeks prior to the attack. Two Detroit police sources said detectives were investigating this possible relationship.

Dolunt said police were called to the church in September in response to a post Smith made on Facebook, stating he planned to attend the church.

On September 15, 2015, Smith posted: “That wasn’t my baby that was (his wife) and pastor(‘s) baby.”

September 16, Smith wrote: “Can’t wait to see Sunday message at the City of God ministry. I’ll be there with the truth.”

September 18: “This (expletive) got my (expletive) pregnant. Tick tock (expletive) and everybody with you.”

Smith posted several more times in the weeks leading up to his attack about the pain he was feeling about the alleged affair. He posted “I’m hurting, yall,” on October 8.

“That wasn’t my baby that was (his wife) and pastor(‘s) baby.”

Deante Smith

Concerned friends took note, one of whom wrote on October 13, “May I ask (what) is going on with you?”

“I’m crazy,” Smith responded, “they call me S.O.N.I.C.”

Sunday’s shooting comes just four months after a gunman opened fire and killed nine people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina.

Detroit City Councilman and pastor of St. Paul A.M.E. Church on Detroit’s east side Andre Spivey commented on church security since the mass shooting in Charleston.

“It continues to shock me,” Spivey said. “Before June, you saw things like this happen every now and then. But now it seems every week something happens at a church.”

Rev. Larry L. Simmons of Barber Memorial A.M.E. Church in northwest Detroit said he was one of the many Detroit pastors concerned with church security.

“Unfortunately, we had an incident about a year ago at another church in Brightmoor,” Simmons said, referring to an attack outside a church by a man wielding an ax. The off-duty police officer serving as a church security guard fatally shot the man who was later determined to be mentally impaired.

“That incident alerted us that our security was not right,” Simmons said. “But how do you make a place that’s open to the public completely secure? You can’t.”

Councilman Spivey said Sunday that he worries about the measures churches feel obliged to take in an attempt to make their congregations safer.

“Thinking far out about it, I do hope the church does not become a place where you have security like an airport…” he said. “My concern is churches are becoming a place where you can no longer welcome people freely. And that shouldn’t happen.”

Then again, is a gun behind the pulpit the next-best option?

Police will turn over their findings over to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office for a charging decision.