Man who brought gun to church's live nativity allegedly wanted to 'kill everyone,' police say
A man who allegedly pointed a gun at a police officer who was providing security at an Indiana church's live nativity scene wanted to "kill everyone," according to court documents.
Tyler Leavitt, 40, is facing multiple charges stemming from an incident on Saturday when he came with a gun to a living nativity event being held by Central Ministries of Fort Wayne.
According to court documents reported on by the Fort Wayne-based WPTA News, Leavitt arrived at the church event with his wife and pointed a gun at a policeman providing security.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
From there, he drove about the property while around 100 people were present for the event, with the officer reporting that Leavitt had stated that he "wanted to kill everyone there."
Security eventually stopped him from driving into the crowd and disarmed him. Leavitt crashed his pickup truck into a nearby ditch and continued to resist using a knife.
"Officers had to use force to restrain the Defendant and take him into custody because the Defendant would not obey verbal commands," read the affidavit, as quoted by WPTA.
According to authorities, one person was shot but did not receive life-threatening injuries, while a second person suffered minor injuries during the Saturday evening incident.
Leavitt is facing multiple charges, including disorderly conduct, recklessness with a deadly weapon, resisting law enforcement, pointing a loaded gun at another person, disarming a police officer, battery with a deadly weapon and criminal confinement.
Central Ministries posted a statement on Facebook in the predawn hours of Sunday expressing thankfulness that security was able to successfully protect the attendees.
"We are praising God for His protection tonight," stated the church. "We are ready to show up in the morning for a time of worship to The God who is our peace, our protector, the only God who can turn a tragedy into a beautiful time for the body of Christ to come together."
Senior Pastor Jeremy Helmuth told the congregation during the 9 a.m. service on Sunday morning that "it's been a long night" and he was more "emotional" than he normally was as a result of the incident.
According to Helmuth, the alleged shooter came near the end of the event, as the church was starting to take down the living nativity sets and he was doing a walkthrough of the display.
"Heroes ran into danger to prevent evil," said Helmuth. "People in our flock, in our church, people that risked their lives for the sake of other people. They ran into danger."
"That's not normal. People usually run from danger. They usually hide. We had so many people … but why? It is just because they are doing their duty? Oh, it's much deeper than that."
