California pastor fends off suspected burglar at church, says
A California pastor fends off suspected burglar at church and grateful for his martial arts background but tells US News that “God was very gracious and protected me” as he fended off a burglar at his church on Thanksgiving Day.
This could have been so much worse, if the pastor had not been brave enough to take on the criminal, the Californian church could have lost their valuables and worse still, caused serious harm to the pastor.
Local residents believe the police are not doing enough to protect the citizens.
‘God was very gracious and protected me’
Pastor Nick Neves of the First Family Church in Antioch said Friday that the incident began yesterday morning when he arrived at the church to check out an alarm and a door that had been propped open.
“As I went to walk into the building, the suspect was coming out with a handful of our stuff. I told him stop, basically he was under citizen’s arrest and he tried to flee and I grabbed a hold of him and we ended up wrestling around in the parking lot for about 15 minutes until the cops could get there,”
Neves told US News.
The pastor used all his training in jiu jitsu and his morality as pastor to disarm the assailant saying “He was very aggressive and I did my best just to subdue him without doing any harm to him,” he continued. “We are a gospel church that wants to point people to the Lord and do good in our community and when somebody is smashing your windows and stealing your stuff it’s harder to help people out.”
Neves also said “God was very gracious and protected me from much harm there. Hopefully the guy can think about his crimes and his sins and hopefully repent,” he added.
With a population of over 100,000 people Antioch is the third-most populous city in Contra Costa County and crime is surging.
The Antioch Police Department says the burglary was an opportunistic attempt by the criminal but he had an ax that he used by the suspect to break a window at the church was recovered at the scene.
“I practice jujitsu and did a little bit of kickboxing training in the past so I know how to defend myself,”
Pastor Nick Neves of the First Family Church
“You train for years and years and you never really have to use it if you are a person of peace – you are not trying to get into trouble with anybody, but it’s there if you need it and, thankfully, this guy who was trying to do me harm didn’t have the training I had, and so I was able to basically neutralize his attacks,” he added.
Americans are not safe anymore, the lack of police on the streets and just lawlessness on the streets of California are having a field day and the State needs to do more to protect citizens.
The pastor would win this battle of good and evil
The Antioch Police Department said, “When the burglar saw his wicked deeds had been discovered he decided to fight with the pastor instead of repent.”
“What he did not know was the pastor would win this battle of good and evil and he held down the perp until APD arrived and placed the man in custody,” police also said. “We are thankful today that the pastor was uninjured during this incident and hopeful that with amazing community members like we have been highlighting lately, we can turn the tide on crime in our city.”
Neves told us he has practiced martial arts, particularly Brazilian jiu-jitsu, since he was in high school. But he never expected he would have to use his skills in the real world.