Multiple churches in East Nashville were put on lockdown on Sunday after shots rang out outside of Greater Grace Temple Community Church.
Police responded to the scene after the church went into lockdown. When police arrived, they found more than a dozen shell casings and found a car with multiple bullet holes in the hood and shattered windows, but none of those involved were present.
Those inside the church heard loud noises, but weren’t quite sure what happened.
“The church remained calm, cool. They remained in worship,” Pastor Breonus Mitchell Sr. said.
For many in the church, this incident brought back memories of the church shooting in Charleston, but fortunately in this situation, no one was hurt, and the lockdown went according to plan.
“Since the Emanuel situation, we’ve had to come back and review our plan for any situation,” Pastor Mitchell explained. “Today proved to a Greater Grace that our plan works, our members were safe.”
As part of their new plan, certain members of the church went to their positions and a panic button was pressed to alert police. While no violence made it’s way inside the church, the parking lot was littered with bullet casings and shattered glass, an unfortunate situation that oddly fit with Sunday’s sermon, entitled “Seeing God through shattered glass.”
The sermon was about how you deal with life when situations happen that challenge you.
Pastor Mitchell said the city of Nashville is currently being challenged and needs to respond appropriately.
“We can’t do infrastructure and invest in sidewalks when the individuals who walk the sidewalks are in danger, their lives are in danger,” Mitchell said.
If you have any information about this incident, you have been asked to call police.
