ST. PETERSBURG, Fla — In the early hours of 2021, a group gathered in prayer at a South St. Pete church and counted their blessings after a bullet came barreling through the ceiling.
An "altar call" marking the end of their service is said to have been the saving grace as to why no one was in their chairs at the time the bullet broke through the metal, wood and sheetrock separating the outside world from the place of worship.
"The Lord had me move them to the front," Pastor Darrel Davis of First Mt. Pilgrim Evangelical Missionary Baptist Church said.
He also credits one positive outcome to the COVID-19 pandemic for his congregation's safety – social distancing.
"The way they were sitting, it eliminated one spot in the church where the bullet came through the ceiling. It was a blessing nobody was sitting in that chair," Davis said.
As for the scene after a deacon realized the chruch had "been hit"? Davis says it was fearful. After hearing the bullet, the group was unaware of where it landed until a search found the round on the floor in the back of the church.
Bullet comes through church ceiling
They were unsure if they should go outside, stay in, or get in their cars because Davis said he heard additional weapons go off. In the meantime, they called the police, but Davis claims they never showed up.
According to his account, he waited approximately 45 minutes and then had another minister of his wait another hour or so for officers to arrive. He could not definitively say if the minister had been contacted by the officers later on.
For their part, St. Pete police say the call for the church came in at the same time as a response for a large crowd in the same district. Due to there being no injuries and the nature of the crowd call, resources were focused there, according to the police department.
The department said they dispatched an officer to the church at 1:03 a.m., nearly an hour after the call came in at 12:13 a.m., but no one was there at the time. A follow-up call was made and no one answered, a spokesperson told 10 Tampa Bay.
While Davis is grateful that no one was injured this time, violence is plaguing his community, and he wants to see immediate action.
"We're living in some difficult times; and I know a lot of things are going on, but this city is plagued with violence and killings and all kinds of violence going on in this community in the south side of St. Pete," he said. "There needs to be something done immediately to curtail all this activity that's going on."
He's referring to the string of shootings that have kept the community on edge for weeks. The latest happened just hours after the church's report when three people were injured amid shots fired along the 16th Street South corridor.
That's the same area where 23-year-old Arnieceia Milton was killed by a stray bullet on Nov. 15. And, a shootout in that area left a veteran officer injured and the 20-year-old accused shooter dead on Dec. 2.
It's a section of town that both police and community leaders are focusing on to find ways to envoke much-needed change.
"We started with having vigils, we started with a march, we started with sign-waving, and we’re going to continue that,” St. Petersburg City Councilmember Deborah Figgs-Sanders said to 10 Tampa Bay earlier this month. However, she said it’s time for the community to do more, starting with uniting to work on solutions.
That's exactly what NAACP President of the St. Petersburg chapter, Esther Eugene is trying to do – address the root causes of gun violence through "speaking to the youth, speaking to leaders in the community, getting ready to speak with some of the families who have been affected by gun violence."
In the end, Davis says there is not much time to waste as the violence has now met the very people who pray to keep people safe.
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