NORTH BRADDOCK, Pennsylvania — At first, Pastor Glenn Germany said he thought the young man walking toward the altar where he was standing at the lectern delivering Sunday’s sermon was there to see his brother, who was to the right of him.
“I thought he was a guest of my brother’s, and I thought he was going to walk past and go speak with my brother,” Germany said during an interview Tuesday morning on Fox and Friends. “When he stopped, he caught me by surprise.”
Germany said the young man, now identified as Bernard Junior Polite, then smiled at him as he pulled out a gun and aimed it directly at his head.
“It seemed like a gun pointed at me, a bullet’s coming next, so I’m just trying to get out of the way,” he said.
The next sound Germany heard at Jesus Dwelling Place Church was that of an empty click. If you watch the live-streamed video of the Sunday service, the next thing you see is Deacon Clarence McCallister seemingly going airborne toward Polite, and then tackling him to the ground.
“The mind reacts faster than the body,” McCallister told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “You either attack or flee, and I decided to attack. Simple as that.”
Had the gun not dry-fired, Germany would not be here today.
Local law enforcement officers said no one at the small congregation knew Polite and that his attempt to kill Germany was “because the spirits in his head told him to.”
The Jesus Dwelling Place Church on Lobinger Avenue in North Braddock has been at this site since the religious institution bought the former Fourth Street United Methodist Church in 2011, two years after it closed for good after serving the town for over 115 years.
When the Fourth Street United Methodist Church closed in 2009, only 30 people showed up for the last ceremony — twice as many that usually came every Sunday. When the Jesus Dwelling Place Church came here, it renewed hope by continuing the long tradition of a house of worship nestled between modest middle-class homes offering comfort to the neighbors.
North Braddock sits on a slope of terrain between the town of Braddock, which lies along the curve of the Monongahela River, and East Pittsburgh, which sits on the top of the slope. It is the home of steel, railroads, and hard-working people, which made what happened on Sunday all the more heartbreaking for the people who are proud to call North Braddock, or any Mon Valley town, home.
Especially when they discovered Derek Polite shot to death in the home he shared with his nephew Bernard Polite after the latter was taken into custody for attempting to shoot Germany.
Allegheny County police told WPXI they could not say if Bernard Polite was a suspect in his uncle’s death. To date, no charges have been filed.
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Some people will say it is luck. Germany said it was the grace of God that saved his life.
“I’m grateful to God because all it takes is one bullet, and I would not be with my family today,” Germany said. “So I’m definitely grateful to God because he definitely had the upper hand on me because I did not see him coming.”