Alabama pastor on edge after gunmen robbed group at church

SELMA, Ala. (AP) - Armed with two pistols and a sawed-off shotgun, the gunmen went through the pockets of the Rev. B.T. Booker Jr. and two church deacons, taking their wallets before they "lined us up to kill us."

It happened after an evening meeting at Morning Star Baptist Church. Booker and the deacons were walking to their cars outside when three men approached them from the street. When the men drew weapons, one of the deacons tried to run. He was grabbed by the arm and forced to the ground with a gun pressed to his head.

"They told us they were going to kill us with such cursing they were putting on us," Booker told WSFA-TV. "...I was hollering for my life, begging them not to shoot us or kill us."

Booker said he's having nightmares a week after the chilling holdup Jan. 26, though the gunmen fled without hurting anyone. The pastor has cancelled all nighttime meetings at his church and added security during worship services.

No arrests have been made in the case. Selma police Lt. Tory Neely said the suspects may be the same armed men who robbed a nearby Family Dollar store two days before the attack outside the church. Security video from the store showed the men hit the clerk in the head with a gun and take money from the register.

Neely said the gunmen fired several shots inside and outside the store and robbed customers at the front door before they fled.

Spencer Collier, Selma's new police chief and former head of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, has pledged to turn to state and federal agencies for help in combating crime in Selma.

Booker said he hopes the robbers are caught before someone else gets hurt.

"I hate that it's come to this," Booker said, "because people are getting afraid even to come to church."

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