Deacon hailed as a hero after helping thwart Michigan church shooting gets a new pickup truck

WAYNE, Mich. (AP) — As Richard Pryor watched the armed man push toward CrossPointe Community Church in Wayne, Michigan, he realized his options to stop the gunman were few.

Pryor, a deacon at the church about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Detroit, was on his cell phone with a 911 dispatcher who was relaying the quickly unfolding events to law enforcement. But the gunman continued to move toward the church doors.

“I’m just realizing there’s no time,” Pryor said Thursday. “I didn’t have a weapon on me, in the truck or anything, so what are your options?”

What Pryor did do was use his 2018 Ford F-150 pickup to ram the gunman, who was then fatally shot by church security staff.

“That’s where the Lord comes involved because it was not my actions,” Pryor said.

On Thursday, Pryor was given a 2025 Ford F-150 pickup by Jack Demmer Ford in Wayne to replace his vehicle, which was struck with multiple gunshots during the June 22 shootout at the church.

The new pickup is on a two-year lease and valued at about $70,000, according to Matthew Demmer, the dealership’s owner and general manager.

“It’s been more than expected,” said an appreciative Pryor just before being handed the key fob to the new F-150. “Very grateful. Very thankful.”

Pryor had arrived late to the morning service at CrossPointe Community Church in Wayne when he first saw the man driving recklessly in the church parking lot. The man, wearing a tactical vest and carrying a rifle and a handgun, exited his car before being struck by Pryor about 11 a.m.

The man, later identified as 31-year-old Brian Browning, began firing shots at Pryor’s vehicle and continued firing as he approached the church, shooting one person in the leg. Wayne police Chief Ryan Strong has said at least two members of the church’s security staff shot Browning.

More than 100 people were inside the church and children in vacation Bible school were leading that Sunday’s worship. They were finishing a song when the congregation heard gunfire outside. Pastor Bobby Kelly was preparing to start his sermon when he thought the noise outside was coming from a construction crew.

A member of the security team rushed in and told everyone to get out. A livestream video shows people carrying children or directing them to get down and move away.

Pryor didn’t know Browning. “I had never seen him before,” he said Thursday.

“The attacker’s intended tragedy did not occur,” Pryor added. “And a lot of people did not see what had happened and weren’t aware of what was going on. Trauma is trauma, but thankfully ours is not trauma over loss of life.”

Kelly has said he met Browning, of nearby Romulus, three times prior to the shooting and had never been threatened by him.

Browning’s mother occasionally attended church services but was not there the day of the shooting.

“This young man was definitely struggling mentally,” Kelly told The Associated Press. “He thought he was hearing from God. We had some conversations about that.”

Kelly also called Pryor “a hero.”

“I think that was the Lord leading him to do that,” Kelly said of his deacon. “He hit this individual with his car, drove right on the grass because he was shooting at the building at the time. And that certainly helped the team to be able to respond.”

Demmer said gifting the new pickup to Pryor is “the best way to give back.”

“It could have been a heckuva lot worse,” Demmer said of the shooting.