Pastor’s son and namesake who played drums at church on Sundays killed in shooting
A Louisiana pastor who has an outreach to bring down street violence in his community is mourning the death of his son in a shooting near his church where the deceased would play drums every Sunday.
Orin Grant Jr., the 20-year-old son of the pastor of St. Paul Baptist Church in Gretna city and his namesake, was shot and killed on Tuesday, NBC News affiliate WDSU reported.
The pastor, who had been working for peace on the streets in the community, is now asking, “'What could I have done better or more?”
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“Now I have to live the rest of my life without my son,” Grant was quoted as saying.
He said his son was by his girlfriend’s house and might have been “lured out of the house.”
“In the backyard of his girlfriend’s house. He was shot by two individuals multiple times,” he said.
The pastor said he would like to tell the person who killed his son that “violence is not the answer.”
“The negative use of weapons is not the answer. God renders forgiveness. Find peace with God,” Grant was quoted as saying.
About 15 hours after the body of the pastor’s son was found, police discovered that a 23-year-old man, Xevion Davis of Conroe, Texas, had also been killed, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.
An autopsy determined he had been shot in the head, nola.com reported, adding that the sheriff’s office said it was not known whether the two shootings were related, but they were investigating all possible angles.
Last Sunday, the pastor of a Milwaukee church possibly saved congregants’ lives as they found themselves caught in a deadly crossfire outside the church building right after the Sunday service ended.
“Upon them coming out of the church, a car pulled right here and began to fire at another car that was behind them,” Bishop Henry Kilpatrick of Reformation of Holiness Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, told ABC News affiliate WISN.
“There was a massive shooting right here. Me and one of the deacons began to push the people back inside and tell them to hit the floor, get down on the floor, and they got down on the floor,” added Kilpatrick, who founded the church 24 years ago with his late wife, Rose.
No churchgoer was injured.
