UPDATED from a previous version of this story that stated that an actual gunman had entered the church lobby. We sincerely apologize for this error.
Less than 24 hours after a racist gunman drove to Buffalo to kill as many Black people as he could, the members of True Bethel Church in Buffalo where NY Gov. Kathy Hochul, the state Attorney General and a host of state and city officials were attending service, heard ‘put down the gun” in a loud commanding voice. Bishop Darius Pridgen was delivering his sermon when right around the 26-minute mark of the video below someone in the church can be heard screaming “put down the gun, put down the gun!” and commotion breaks out. At that point, Bishop Pridgen directs members of the congregation to move as he exits the pulpit and calls for security guards to “get him.”
Well, based on a post later put up on the Bishop’s Facebook page, there was not actually a gunmen, but a grieving individual saying who just interrupted the sermon screaming.
