A Connecticut pastor who was caught on video tackling a teenage gunman during a carjacking in Baltimore, Maryland, in June, is thanking God for keeping him alive after the daring confrontation.
“Let me be clear, I am in no way a hero. I’m a miracle,” the Rev. Kenneth Moales Jr., who leads the Pentecostal Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Bridgeport, declared in a recent interview with Fox News.
“I’m glad the lord covered my life and kept me, but a couple of taps to that chin, wrestled the gun out, before you know it I’m talking junk to him, ‘don’t run now.’ I tackled him to the ground, and then I realized this is not a regular man I’m fighting. This is someone young.”
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An affidavit cited by WBALTV stated that Moales parked his car on East Pratt Street near Broadway in Upper Fells Point just before 9 p.m. on June 29, when the teenager is seen in the video recording of the incident walking up to his vehicle during a pouring rain.
Moales revealed that the teenager, who was later identified by police as a 16-year-old junior in high school, pretended he had an emergency and said his phone was broken. He then pulled a ski mask over his face and brandished a gun. Moales told CT Post that he thought about speeding away at this point, but the teenager tapped his window with his gun and said, “I will shoot you. Get out of the car.”
The 53-year-old pastor told the publication that the vehicle was his wife’s Audi A6, and he was outside a seafood restaurant where he was supposed to meet two other clergymen for dinner.
Even though he feared for his life as he got out of the car, Moales said he also thought, “I can take this guy. I’m not a hero, but I began to think, ‘I can’t die like this. My wife and children are at home; they’d be devastated. I can’t die here.'”
He explained that he instinctively decided to punch the gunman in his jaw, and the two of them eventually began struggling for the gun he described as a Glock 9mm. The pastor was pistol-whipped during the struggle, but he said he managed to wrestle the gun away from the teenager, and it fell to the street.
He said at one point, as he tried to restrain the teenager. He explained to him that he was a pastor and attempted to offer him mercy by saying he would not press charges against him. Still, the gunman managed to escape the pastor’s grip with his gun and the car.
Police responded quickly to the scene and they quickly found the car and arrested and charged three teenagers who were inside, WBALTV reported. Charging documents show that the 16-year-old, a 15-year-old and a 19-year-old Mehkai Tindal were arrested. Police also found multiple car keys for different vehicles inside a backpack Tindal was carrying.
Moales told Fox News that during his struggle with the teenage gunman, he was hurt by the lack of reverence he showed when he told him he was a pastor.
“Believe it or not, that’s what hurts me the most. He had no reverence for me as a pastor. I thought that would be a turning point in our scuffling. I tried to get more leverage on him. ‘Hey, relax, I’m a pastor,’” Moales said. “I was so concerned. This is such a godless generation. How could he not at least back off, knowing I’m a pastor, and he didn’t care.”
Moales said he was so moved by the incident he now plans on changing his ministry to focus more on salvation for the youth.
“I started out as a youth pastor with my father. My passion has always been towards mentoring and pouring into young men. But what I’m learning right now, mentorship is not enough,” he told Fox News. “We’ve got to get into Lordship. [We] have to introduce our generation to our Lord Jesus Christ.”
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