Pastor shot in mouth during carjacking at church also battling cancer, family reveals
Zionfield Baptist Church Pastor Clemmie Livingston Jr., who was shot in the mouth by carjackers as he was getting ready for a service at his church in Memphis, Tennessee, on Sunday, is also battling cancer, his family has revealed.
"They're trying to watch it because they don't want it to spread trying to operate on him," Kevona Livingston, the daughter of the 70-year old pastor, who told ABC 24 that the bullet fired by the carjackers shattered her father’s jaw.
"It's bone cancer and they shattered his bone,” she said.
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The Memphis Police Department told Fox 13 that the pastor was shot just after 9 a.m. Sunday as he stepped out of his church before the start of his Sunday morning service.
“The victim was shot when he came out of the church as the suspects were stealing a 2019 silver Chevrolet Corvette. As the suspects fled the scene in the stolen vehicle, they fired shots, striking the victim,” a statement from the police said. “A second person who was outside of the church at the time the car was stolen returned fire after the suspects shot first. The victim was in stable condition at the last update.”
Police currently have no suspects and have not recovered the stolen vehicle.
The pastor’s family said though he survived the attack, his road to recovery will be long.
They said that on the day of the shooting, a church member first heard a car alarm go off and went outside to check what was happening and Pastor Livingston followed shortly after. That’s when he realized that a carjacking was underway. The suspects who were wearing hoodies fired shots as they made their escape, hitting the pastor. Someone from the church fired back at the thieves.
Keith Livingston, the pastor’s son, told ABC 24 that he didn’t understand why they chose to shoot his elderly father.
"You got what you came for, but why hurt him? That's my question. He didn't hurt nobody,” he said.
Kevona Livingston, added that it’s attacks like the shooting of her father at a place that is supposed to be sacred that makes people afraid to leave their homes today.
"It's hard to get people in church nowadays, and things like this make it even harder,” she said.
The pastor’s family urged the community to continue praying for him as he recovers from surgery to his jaw.
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