The church minister who shot dead a man wielding a brick inside his Detroit church will not face charges, prosecutors have announced.
According to the Wayne County prosecutor's office, the pastor of the City of God church – who has not been officially named – had an "honest and reasonable belief" that he was at risk of death when Deante Smith attacked him.
According to The Detroit News, Smith had ranted on Facebook weeks before the incident, accusing the pastor of impregnating his wife. Both Smith's wife and the pastor deny any affair.
Smith forced his way into the church and pushed the pastor's mother to the ground before running toward him.
"The pastor had had issues with the man before," Assistant Chief Steve Dolnun told the Detroit Free Press. "He had been threatening him to do bodily harm. He walked into the service and went after the pastor with a brick. The pastor pulled out his Glock and fired several shots. I think he hit him four or five times, and the man died."
Two days before the shooting, a security video at a garage where the pastor works showed Smith running up to his van and shattering a window while it was moving.
Prosecutors concluded "the pattern of threats and violent behaviour" toward the pastor "support the decision not to charge" him.
"The alleged facts in this case were salacious to some because they happened in a place of worship and the person who discharged the weapon was a man of God," Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement. "The provable facts in this case showed that [the pastor's] actions...were done in lawful self-defence and there will be no charges."
Following the incident at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston in which nine people died, many churches in the US began introducing tightened security measures.
Bishop Ira Combs of the Greater Bible Way Temple Church in Michigan told Reuters in July: "We aren't looking to engage people in violence, but we are going to practise law enforcement. And we are going to interdict if someone comes in with a weapon."
