The 22-year-old churchgoer who stopped a gunman during a shooting at a Nashville church on Sunday is asking for prayers for all the victims - and for the shooter. 

Robert Engle has been widely praised as a hero after confronting the suspected shooter when he opened fire inside the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ, in Antioch, near Nashville, on Sunday morning. 

The masked gunman entered the church after shooting a mother-of-two churchgoer dead in the parking lot just after the service ended. 

Police say the shooter is 25-year-old Emanuel Samson.  He is reported to have pistol whipped Engle when he tried to stop him during the rampage.  In response, Engle rushed to his vehicle and got his own weapon, which he had a permit for, and held Samson at gunpoint until police arrived. 

Metro Nashville Police Officer Steve Anderson said of Engle during a press conference: 'He's the hero.  He's the person who stopped this madness.'

In a statement released after the incident, Engle asked people not to call him a hero.  Instead he put the focus on those who had been affected by the shooting, asking for prayers for them and also for the shooter. 

'I ask everyone to pray for the victims, family members of the victims, our church community. Please pray for healing. Also, please pray for the shooter, the shooter's family and friends. They are hurting as well,' he said. 

Samson was taken into police custody where, according to The Tennessean, he told police that he used to attend services at the church. 

It is not yet clear why he carried out the shooting but he posted some cryptic messages to Facebook shortly before.

'Everything you've ever doubted or made to be believe as false, is real. & vice versa, B.,' he said in one. 

'Become the creator instead of what's created. Whatever you say, goes,' he said in another.