South Carolina UMC Readies to Aid Community after Police Shooting

Pisgah UMC Members Experienced Lockdown

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A United Methodist congregation in Florence, S.C. is pondering how best to help its traumatized community in the aftermath of an Oct. 3 shooting in which one officer was killed and six others wounded in what authorities are calling one of the worst police shootings in recent years.

Pisgah United Methodist Church is one of the closest congregations to the Vintage Place subdivision off Hoffmeyer Road in Florence, said the Rev. Josh McClendon, who has been Pisgah’s pastor since July 1. “We’re about a mile away through the woods,” he told United Methodist Insight. Florence is a northeastern South Carolina city of about 37,000 residents.

Details of the shooting were slowly becoming clear on Oct. 4, the day after the residential neighborhood erupted in what the New York Times called “an extraordinary barrage of firepower.” According to a report from CBS affiliate WYFF Channel 4, Florence County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Glenn Kirby said “authorities were serving a search warrant about 4 p.m. Wednesday in Vintage Place for a 27-year-old suspect in a sexual assault case of a minor. The minor was a foster child.”

Police identified the shooter as Fred Hopkins, 74, who reportedly shot at law enforcement officers with a high-powered rifle from the second floor of his home. The Associated Press identified Mr. Hopkins as a disbarred lawyer and Vietnam War veteran who bragged about his shooting prowess on Facebook.

The New York Times reported: “Maj. Mike Nunn of the sheriff’s office said that deputies had tried to serve a warrant at about 4 p.m., but that a suspect had opened fire, wounding three. Other law enforcement officers responded, including four city police officers who were soon wounded. The officers were eventually rescued from the scene in a military-style vehicle.” Florence Police Chief Allen Heidler identified the slain officer as Terrence Carraway, 52, a 30-year veteran of the force.

As the gunfight raged, several of Pisgah UMC’s members endured the fear and uncertainty of having an “active shooter” in their vicinity.

Since Pisgah UMC’s office closes in early afternoon, staff had gone by the time the shooting began. “I’d left to pick up my child from day care, and I encountered the emergency vehicles coming toward me as I was leaving,” Rev. McClendon said in a telephone interview.

However, Pisgah members who live nearby, including the church’s lay leader and his wife, experienced the police lockdown of Vintage Place, where the shooting occurred near a cul-de-sac, Rev. McClendon said. Residents were allowed back into the neighborhood around 10 p.m. Oct. 3. The crime scene along with one intersection remained closed on Oct. 4.

The morning after the shooting, Rev. McClendon said he and church leaders were discussing how best to respond to the tragedy.

“It’s wild times here right now, what with the hurricane and the flooding and now this,” the Pisgah pastor said. “Folks [in Florence] are rallying around his [the slain officer’s] family and other injured officers. Some of the wounded are in critical condition.”

“I’m trying to work through our lay leader to feel out where folks are,” he said. “The question for us is what is our role because we’re so close. We’re trying to be helpful and see what we’re called to do.”

Rev. McClendon said Pisgah may hold a vigil for the wounded police officers, but would rely on guidance from Officer Carraway’s home church regarding memorial services.

“What we want is for our efforts to be fruitful, to do what people actually need,” the pastor said. He added that in light of the multiple disasters that have befallen his community, Pisgah may hold some post-traumatic counseling, possibly with assistance from South Carolina Annual Conference’s disaster response.

In a follow-up email, Rev. McClendon wrote: “As our first response, we've decided to transition an event we had planned for this Sunday. In light of the Feast of St. Francis, like many churches, we were going to have a ‘Blessing of the Animals’ this Sunday, Oct. 7, at 3:00 p.m. Because of the shooting, we're expanding that into what we're calling ‘A Blessing of the Land.’ In the spirit of praying for all of God's creation, we're going to especially keep in mind the very near people and places that have gone through so much recently.”

The Florence shooting ranks as the worst attacks on police in recent years because of the number of officers wounded and the severity of their injuries. In July 2016, five Dallas officers were shot in a downtown ambush; one died. A few days after the Dallas shooting, six law enforcement officers were shot, three fatally, in Baton Rouge, La. Two officers, Cpl. Zach Moak and Patrolman James White, were killed in Brookhaven, Miss., on Sept. 29.

Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.