DETROIT – An 84-year-old church security guard was shot and killed Wednesday night as bible study was going on inside a Detroit church.
It happened at 9 p.m. in the parking lot of Victory Way Assembly Church of God in Christ, which is in the 5300 block of Tireman.
Pastor Sylvester Rowan says security guard Joseph Lewis worked for a security firm and had been watching the church parking lot for the last "several months."
Police say Lewis was accosted by two men and Lewis was shot.
Officers tried to save Lewis in the parking lot, but he died at the hospital.
Charles Wilson was friends with Lewis and says Lewis was a kind man and couldn't have hurt the men attacking him.
"He didn't deserve this," he said.
Dewitt McGowan said Lewis was killed just minutes after his aunt had brought him something to eat.
"Thinking of it now, what if she was still over there? Would they have shot her? Would they have hurt her? It could have been way deeper than what happened," McGowan said.
Rowan says the church's neighborhood is a dangerous place and his church is needed there now more than ever.
"My resolve is that we're not going to retreat one inch .. we're going to stand our ground," Rowan said.
Police said they don't have a detailed description of the men involved in Lewis' death and there were not any security cameras in the area.