No arrests in murder of California pastor shot dead in Los Angeles

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – No arrests have yet been made for the murder of 65-year old California evangelist Rev. Reginald Moore, who was shot dead in broad daylight outside his church in Compton county, Los Angeles on October 24, 2021. Pastor Rev. Reginald Moore was murdered outside the Upper Room Christian Center and was found lying dead in the street holding his Bible and walking cane.

Like other major US cities, LA is battling what has been described as an “epidemic” of gun violence: shortly before his own death, Pastor Moore conducted the funeral of his 27-year-old grandniece, who was shot dead in the streets of LA’s Watts neighborhood in September, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Faith leaders in Compton have called for an end to the spate of killings in their county. “We will not hide, run, nor tremble in fear while allowing evil to run rampant in our Compton streets,” Pastor Michael J. Fisher, the senior pastor at Greater Zion Church Family said in a press release about Pastor Moore’s death. “We will not rest nor stop until (the assailants) are found.”

Pastor Moore was vocal in sharing the Gospel, and preached to gang members to come to church, the LA Times said. His final sermon was about giving one’s anger to God. “He was discussing how you can be angry, but sin not. He was saying you can be angry, but still be a better person, a better man, a better father by not turning to anger,” the pastor’s nephew Raymond Sanders told the Times.

“[Pastor Moore] was the last person we would think that harm would come to in this fashion, [he] was just a minister who wanted to get out the word of the Lord to anyone who would listen,” Sanders said. “The people who shot him had to know he was coming from church, that he was defenseless, just a disabled, old man walking to his car.”

According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Pastor Moore was the intended target for a gunman who made his escape in a grey sedan car. The pastor was the intended target, but a motive for the shooting had not yet been established, Sheriff’s Lt. Charles Calderaro told the Times.

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