Gunman Shoots Bishop, One Other at Wedding in US Church

New York Times/

A Saturday morning wedding at a church in a small New Hampshire town came to a bloody and abrupt stop when a gunman entered and opened fire, injuring at least two people before he was “gang-tackled” by attendees, the police said.

Wedding guests had the gunman pinned down when officers arrived at the New England Pentecostal Ministries church in Pelham, N.H., about 30 miles north of Boston, Chief Joseph Roark of the Pelham Police Department said at a news conference on Saturday afternoon.

The suspect, a man who the police said used a handgun, was in custody. He was not publicly identified nor was a motive revealed, but the police said the shooting did not appear to be random.

The police received a call of an active shooter at the church at 10:12 a.m. and found a man and woman with gunshot wounds. Their identities and conditions were not made publicly available.

But in a Facebook post, Neivia Choate, a relative of one of the victims, wrote: “A coward walked into my family’s church today at NEP New England Pentecostal Church and shot my uncle Bishop Stanley Choate. I call for anyone that knows and believes and In the GOD we serve to get on your knees and pray for my family.”

Darius Mitchell, who said his family was close with Bishop Choate, said the church and its bishop were well known in the African-American community of Lowell, Mass., which is about 10 miles away.

Mr. Mitchell said that Bishop Choate, who was a 1963 graduate of Lowell High School, was being treated at Lowell General Hospital.

In a statement, the hospital said it had received one patient from the shooting and that person had been transferred to a hospital in Boston. It said it could not disclose any other details.

The shooting was the latest in a series of acts of violence to occur at houses of worship.

In 2018, a shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh left 11 dead and in 2017, a shooting at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas,left 26 dead.

In Pelham, the police provided the church with active shooter training within the last year, Chief Roark said. The community, which is near the Massachusetts border and has a population of just over 13,000, was a farming community up until World War II, “when explosive growth in population and industry took hold and has yet to slow down,” according to its website.

In a peculiar twist, Bishop Choate was the second leader from New England Pentecostal Ministries to be shot in less than two weeks. Luis Garcia, a minister and member of the church, was shot and killed last week.

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