Clemmie Livingston Jr., pastor of New Zionfield Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, was shot before church on the morning of Sunday, Feb. 25, while trying to stop two suspects from stealing a car.
The Tennessee pastor’s grandson, 17-year-old Kavion Woodin, was supposed to give a message that morning titled “Another Chance,” and he said that is what God gave his grandfather.
“My grandad is 70, he could’ve been unresponsive, but God gave him another chance because God knows how great he is,” Woodin told WMC Action News 5. “God knows my grandad is a great man.”
Tennessee Pastor in Stable Condition Following Shooting
Memphis police responded to a call shortly after 9:00 a.m. Sunday. Two suspects wearing black hoodies were in the process of stealing a silver 2019 Chevrolet Corvette, which Woodin believed to belong to one of the church members.
Clemmie Livingston Jr. came out of the church while the theft was in progress. As the suspects were driving away, they fired shots, hitting Livingston in the mouth, according to Woodin. When police arrived at the scene, they found the Tennessee pastor in critical condition.
An unidentified person outside the church fired back at the suspects. The vehicle has not yet been recovered, but Livingston’s condition is now stable.
“He feared no evil,” Woodin said of his grandfather. “He came out the church to protect a car because he feared no evil.”
“He was a man of giving, willingness, kindness, compassion,” said the 17-year-old, “and he was a man that never did wrong towards nobody.” Woodin said that Memphis has a problem with violence and that he is “sick and tired” of losing friends to “gun violence and cars.”
“I’ve lost seven friends due to gun violence,” he said. “I’ve lost two friends to cars, and I’m nothing but 17. It’s time to stop the violence. It’s time to stop the robbing, stop the killing. It’s time to put the guns down.”
Woodin told WMC, “I feel like the devastation is not of the shooting, it’s the consistency of the violence in Memphis. This is not the first time a church has been robbed.”
