KEY POINTS

  • The incident happened at the Nashville Light Mission Pentecostal Church
  • Dezire Baganda approached the altar and pointed a gun at the churchgoers
  • Pastor Ezekiel Ndikumana tackled Baganda before he could fire shots
  • The crowd wrestled the gun away from Baganda and held him until police arrived

A pastor at a church in Nashville, Tennessee, was hailed a hero Sunday after he disarmed a gunman who stormed the altar while a service was going on.

Ezekiel Ndikumana, a pastor at the Nashville Light Mission Pentecostal Church, was praying with several other parishioners when an armed man, identified as Dezire Baganda, 26, approached the altar and pointed a gun at the congregation, a video obtained by WWLP-TV showed.

The clip has since been reposted by various outlets and journalists on Twitter. In it, Ndikumana could be seen tackling Baganda before he could even fire shots. The churchgoers eventually managed to wrestle the gun away from the man.

Warning: This video might be disturbing to some viewers.

The crowd held the suspect until police arrived, reported ABC 7.

"He wanted to kill, that's what first came to my mind," Ndikumana said as per WKBN-TV. "He was standing in front of almost everybody. No one was behind him yet, so he could have done anything."

Baganda is not a member of the church. But according to Ndikumana, the man attended several services in the past.

Meanwhile, church members said Baganda was banned from entering the place of worship because he allegedly interrupted pastors during their sermons. However, they said he never turned violent.

On the day of the incident, Baganda reportedly entered the church for the 10 a.m. service and remained calm until 12:45 p.m.

No shots were fired inside the church.

"The heroic actions of a local pastor and several of his parishioners saved a church from further violence," police told WBAL-TV.

Baganda has been charged with 15 counts of felony aggravated assault. He is expected to face additional charges.

Following the incident, Ndikumana thanked God for empowering him to save lives.

"I would say that God used me because I felt like I was going to use the back door as an example as going on by trying to go behind him. And then I felt the feeling that I would go and grab him… and that’s what happened," WWLP-TV quoted him as saying. "God wanted to show that he's a powerful God. One main thing I said, we had faith."

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Representation. A gun. Pixabay
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