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Wedding guests had the gunman pinned down when officers arrived at the New England Pentecostal Ministries church in Pelham, New Hampshire, about 30 miles north of Boston, Chief Joseph Roark of the Pelham Police Department said at a news conference Saturday afternoon.
The suspect, a man who police said used a handgun, was in custody. He was not publicly identified nor was a motive revealed, but police said the shooting did not appear to be random.
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.”
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Darius Mitchell, who said his family was close with Stanley Choate, said the church and its bishop were well known in the African-American community of Lowell, Massachusetts, which is about 10 miles away. Mitchell said that the bishop 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.
In a peculiar twist, 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. On Saturday, the church had been scheduled to host a “celebration of life” service for Garcia at noon.
Police have charged a man, Brandon Castiglione, in connection with Garcia’s murder, television station WMUR reported.
Police provided the church with active shooter training within the last year, Roark said.
This article originally appeared in
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