A Great Dane that survived a fatal truck crash the day before Thanksgiving was rescued early Christmas Eve, injured but somehow still alive.
Now an effort is underway to raise money for Blue Bell's recovery so that her family, which lost two family members and another Great Dane in the Nov. 22 crash on Interstate 49 in Natchitoches Parish, doesn't have to worry about the costs.
The family sought the public's help in finding Blue Bell days after the fiery crash that killed Betty B. Siders and Sheri Lynn Frisby. Weeks went by, and weather conditions changed drastically — from warm temperatures to snow and back — but there were few sightings.
Then, on Saturday, a sighting set off a coordinated effort between a Bullard, Texas-based rescue group, volunteers and the Natchitoches Parish Sheriff's Office that brought the dog, now weighing a mere 73 pounds, to Crossroads Animal Emergency Clinic in Alexandria in the wee hours Sunday.
As told by Carey Carruth Hamblin, Natchitoches resident Damion Spillman thought he saw the 2-year-old dog Saturday afternoon. He posted it to Facebook, and the ball started rolling. Paul Cormane Jr., another Natchitoches resident, shot video to confirm it was Blue Bell.
Hamblin, who owns six Great Danes, tagged Amy Rainoshek, the founder and president of the rescue group Save Rocky the Great Dane Rescue and Rehab. A volunteer admin in Michigan, Dawn Hussey, contacted a Kinder woman, Erin Richard, who drove to the abandoned house on Bayou Derbonne Road where the dog had taken refuge.
Hamblin was astonished because she said the area near Cloutierville is known to be frequented by feral hogs, coyotes and more predators.
“We’ve been looking for her all this time, and she’s right here," she said later Sunday morning.
All possible exits from under the house were blocked. A deputy was on hand as Richard and Cormane crawled under the house, the ground littered with debris. Richard approached Blue Bell and, within 15 minutes, had a leash on the dog's collar.
“She’s just a gorgeous dog," said Hamblin. "She never growled after that point.”
But the dog still wasn't secure. She had lost so much weight during her ordeal that the collar easily could have slipped off her head. Another volunteer, Karen Ford, had brought some chicken, and Richard was able to coax the dog out from under the house in about 45 minutes.
The rescuers had been exchanging messages that Hamblin, on her way back home from a Bossier shopping trip, had been following. The messages stopped, but then came word that Blue Bell was in safe hands after 32 days.
She was rushed to the Alexandria emergency hospital for treatment. She was dehydrated, malnourished and had an injury to her right rear leg.
Hamblin took Richard, covered with mud, to the nearby International House of Pancakes for a meal after they left the dog in the care of the Crossroads staff.
Blue Bell's family was out of state when she was found. The family did speak with the hospital to make financial arrangements, but a fundraiser already is underway. Hamblin said the family has lost so much that they don't need to worry about paying for Blue Bell's recovery.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the effort already had raised more than $1,500 of its $5,000 goal. The fundraiser is in the hands of the rescue group, which is a 501(c) nonprofit organization that's dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and re-homing of Great Danes, mixes and other breeds.
All money will go to the dog's treatment, said Hamblin. Any money remaining likely will go to the family, she said.
The family told The Town Talk that it thanks everyone who helped find Blue Bell and those who kept in contact with them. "God bless," read a text message.
She already has been transferred to the care of another veterinarian. On Monday, Rainoshek reported that Blue Bell was "eating like a champ."
Hamblin said Blue Bell looked "so tired and so weak" after her rescue, but she was able to walk.
“It is really hard to break the spirit of a Great Dane.”
None of Frank Selas' children had a clue about their father's "Louisiana legal problems" until the night of his January arrest, they all testified Thursday in a hearing to determine whether he'll be granted bail.
Ninth Judicial District Judge Mary Lauve Doggett took the matter under advisement, saying she'd have a decision within a week. Other motions that had been scheduled for Thursday either were continued without date or reset for Dec. 1.
The testimony opened a window into Selas' personal life, revealing that he is heavily in debt, owes back taxes, recently fell while in jail and that his wife lost her private school teaching job in the fallout after his arrest.
It also showed, in previously undisclosed information from the lead detective in the case, that Selas traveled the globe with and without his family — paying careful attention to avoid any mention of Louisiana — before and after settling in a San Diego suburb around 1980.
The hearing afforded the family a small reunion outside of a jail. Before the hearing resumed after a lunch break, Selas walked away from the defense table to get hugs from all four siblings.
Selas was arrested Jan. 25 at his Bonita, California, home, almost 37 years after two warrants had been issued for him in the wake of an investigation into sexual abuse complaints filed by several families. Then a children's television show host known as "Mr. Wonder" at KNOE-TV in Monroe, Selas had taken a group of kids on a camping trip to Valentine Lake in June 1979.
Some children told their parents that Selas allegedly had sexually abused them. But when Rapides Parish Sheriff's detectives, including current Sheriff William Earl Hilton, went to arrest him in Monroe on the warrants, Selas was gone. After his arrest, a Rapides Parish grand jury indicted Selas — who legally changed his last name to Szeles in 1992 — on two counts of aggravated rape, three counts of sexual battery and eight counts of felony indecent behavior with juveniles.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Selas' children testified that they would post bond for their father and guarantee his appearances in Rapides Parish if he's allowed to return to his Bonita, California, home, or to an apartment near one of his daughters in central Pennsylvania.
One of his sons, David Szeles, testified that his once-active father's health has started to fail in jail and that he fell last week while incarcerated at the Rapides Parish Detention Center #3, which is off Coliseum Boulevard. Selas was taken by ambulance to Christus St. Frances Cabrini Hospital and ended up hospitalized at Rapides Regional Medical Center.
David Szeles, an immigration attorney who works for a San Diego nonprofit organization, said the man he's read about in the media doesn't resemble the father he knew. He said that his father has lost weight since he was arrested by U.S. marshals in January.
When the children visited their 77-year-old father at the detention center Wednesday, he didn't engage with them like normal, didn't eat a meal they'd brought for him and was sitting in a wheelchair, he said.
"He wasn't the same as he was before," the son testified. "He just looked really frail and a completely different person."
Defense attorney Mike Small later introduced documents detailing Selas' fall and subsequent hospital stay, including a letter from a local doctor that stated Selas suffered a brain injury. After the hearing, Small said his client needs the kind of treatment that he cannot get while incarcerated.
Selas' youngest daughter, Tammy Green, was the first to testify. Under questioning from Small about what he called her father's "Louisiana legal problems," she said her father always has been there for her. Small asked her questions about her own family in Pennsylvania, her children and her husband, an accounting professor at a university.
When he asked if she ever saw any inappropriate behavior by her father toward her children, Rapides Assistant District Attorney Brian Mosley objected. He said the hearing was about whether bond should be granted and not about Selas' character, although he added that "if that's the door that's being opened, then I'll drive right through it."
Small continued questioning Green, reading off the charges facing her father. Green grabbed a tissue and dabbed her eyes, but said she and her siblings "definitely" would be willing to sign off on bond for their father.
Green later was brought back to the stand to testify that the siblings also would be willing to secure an apartment near her home for their father.
Son Sean Szeles, an Emmy Award-winning producer in television animation, testified that, of the four siblings, he had the most knowledge of his parents' finances. He said he'd been helping his father pay off a lot of debt, as well as back taxes. He said his father's only source of income was monthly Social Security payments.
He acknowledged that his mother was retired, but stumbled over the reason why. David Szeles later testified that their mother was forced out at the private school that some of her nine grandchildren attended because of the publicity surrounding their father's case.
He said the case garnered a lot of media attention in San Diego, too, but the school didn't cite that officially as the reason for firing their mother. He said she was an "at-will" employee, and that she did receive a severance.
Jacquline Ryan, the oldest of Selas' four children, said she had a "pretty amazing" relationship with her father. "My dad is like my hero," she beamed.
Ryan, a divorced "extremely overprotective" mother who lives with her parents in her childhood home, said she relies on Selas for his optimism and zest for life. She described a tight-knit family and said she had no issues allowing her three sons to be around her father.
She said it was "unreal, a complete shock" to learn of her father's arrest, which happened while she was out running errands. "It has completely changed our family."
Ryan, who was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, said she has no memory of living in Louisiana, but does know she spent time in Japan and Argentina, her mother's home country. Her siblings also told of traveling to Spain, France, Morocco and the Philippines as they grew up.
Name change and travel
Mosley asked all the siblings about their travels and about the proximity of their father's home to Mexico. Bonita is only miles from the border, the children testified, but they said that they had not visited that country with their father for years. They also said that, as far as they knew, their father had no friends, relatives or other contacts in the country.
Mosley also asked the children about the spelling of their last name and if they always remembered it being spelled that way. Ryan said she didn't know the reason for the change, which happened when she was in high school, but some of them said it was because their father wanted to revert to the way his Hungarian relatives spelled it before they immigrated to the United States.
"We're into genealogy, so we want things to be accurate," said Ryan.
But Rapides Parish Sheriff William Earl Hilton and lead Detective Steve Phillips painted a different picture of Selas. Hilton told of talking twice to Selas' wife, Maria Magdalena Aranda Selas — when he and his then-partner, Graham Hendricks, went to serve the arrest warrants in 1979 and the next day after Maria Selas had received a telephone call from her husband.
Hilton testified that Maria Selas told him her husband urged her to join him in Rio de Janerio and that he might go to Argentina. Maria Selas said she refused initially, telling her husband that she needed to decide what to do because of their young daughters, Hilton said.
He also testified that he later learned from the Ouachita Parish Sheriff's Office that Maria Selas had left Monroe.
The defense had no questions for Hilton, which meant that Phillips took the stand next. He said that his investigation found Selas began using the new spelling of his name sometime in late 1979 or early 1980. Letters were found referencing it after a search warrant was served at Selas' home after his arrest.
Phillips testified that Selas also switched his first and middle names, and sometimes added "Edward" to his name. He also claimed that Selas transposed some numbers in his Social Security number on at least one occasion.
Also found during the execution of the search warrant were videos, old passports and correspondence between Frank and Maria Selas that detailed some of their travels across the United States and abroad. Frank Selas apparently returned to the states around November 1979, Phillips testified, but Maria Selas remained in Argentina with their two daughters.
He said that a passport from when Ryan was a child showed that she arrived in Argentina on June 18, 1979. Phillips also testified that Frank Selas was nervous about revealing he had any connection to Louisiana and had told his wife that it had been easy to get a new driver's license in Illinois with the new spelling of their last name.
And Phillips testified about finding a family video shot at Christmas 1980 that he called "odd," showing Frank Selas walking near their home, among other people, with his two daughters dressed in jeans but no shirts.
Phillips also said he'd talked to a woman who used to work with Frank Selas at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who claimed he was removed from the church after unsanctioned pool outings with youngsters.
But defense attorney Marc Carlos, the attorney the family initially hired in San Diego who is working with Small, asked Phillips if he'd talked to anyone in an official capacity with the church about Frank Selas' standing. Phillips said he had not.
Carlos also asked him whether he had interviewed the former church coworker himself, and Phillips said no. Another detective had conducted that interview, he said. Under Carlos' questioning, Phillips admitted that he had no knowledge of any police reports made by the church about his client.
Carlos pointed out that Selas had been living in the United States for decades and had been using his same Social Security number and driver's license number.
At the end of the hearing, Small surrendered Selas' passport to Doggett, who asked the attorneys for their recommendations on bond. Mosley said he opposed any bail being set for Selas, saying he had fled once before "and 37 years later, he we are." He said he had "serious concerns" about whether Selas would return to court if granted bail.
Small pointed to Selas' children and the risks that they were prepared to take for their father. He cited Selas' age and health, saying he could be electronically monitored even out of state. "But look at him," he said, gesturing to Selas sitting next to him. "Do you really believe he has the physical or mental acuity to flee?"
Doggett did say that if she granted bail, one condition of his release would be that Selas would be barred from having contact with any minor children.
Daniel Carr and Kolton Mitchell already were late as they drove down Washboard Road, but then they saw the flames and smoke.
Their decision to stop certainly saved the lives of three family members and their dog, and the two 17-year-old Tioga High School students were honored for that on Monday night.
Mitchell, a junior, couldn't attend the presentation, made during the Holiday Village Fire Department's annual meeting. But Carr was there, along with parents Rebecca and Walter Carr and other family members, to receive a plaque and a standing ovation from the department's board members and residents who were attending.
On Jan. 15, the area was preparing for another winter blast. Schools already were closed the next day, and the two teens had duck hunting in mind. Around the time the clock struck midnight, Jan. 15 turning into Jan. 16, thoughts of hunting were put on hold when they spotted flames from the road.
The flames led them to the house, which can't been seen from the road. Carr says flames already were on the side of the house's chimney and the roof. The two backed into the home's driveway and began beating on the door. Mitchell called 911.
Three people were asleep inside, including a wheelchair-bound man who uses oxygen and his wife. The occupants didn't know the house was on fire and didn't wake up until they heard the pounding on the door.
One realized what was happening when she sat up in bed and began to choke on smoke.
Carr said they then went to the back of the house and removed all the oxygen tanks so they wouldn't explode. Another family member from nearby came to help them get put a coat on the disabled man and get him outside into the frigid temperatures.
They also were able to rescue the family's dog. The family found shelter at a relative's nearby home.
The two were just "doing what we needed to do," said Carr. After sticking around to talk to some first responders, they continued on to their camp.
"We got ducks," Carr laughed.
But what the two did means much more to a daughter of the couple saved. "We're so grateful for what y'all did," said the woman after the presentation.
"Most teenagers are like, I don't know if I want to get involved, but we are so grateful that y'all stopped because if it had been a few minutes later, my parents would not have gotten out," she said. "My dad, when he exited the door, the roof fell down behind him.
"We're so grateful for y'all. Thank y'all so much."
The house was a total loss, said Holiday Village Administrative Chief David Gunter. Nothing about the fire was suspicious, so it was turned over to the family's insurance company, he said.
He also said the home's smoke alarms didn't go off until after the teens had gotten into the house, so he suspects the fire began in the attic.
The bitter cold spells over the past few months has resulted in an uptick in house fires, some deadly, across the state. Holiday Village Fire Chief Britt Bolen said his department responded to nine structure fires in January alone, in addition to 32 for all of 2017.
"Cold weather, heaters, space heaters, chimney fires, all of that is coming into play," said Bolen.
Carr, a senior who said he wants to become a game warden, admitted that he was nervous during the rescue. They began getting feedback about what they'd done that afternoon after someone made a Facebook post about the fire.
The two hadn't had contact with the family until Monday night, he said. Gunter said the family had contacted them because they wanted to express their gratitude to the teens.
"At times like that, there's no manual that tells you what to do," said board member Jerry Barrett. "You just can't minimize what they did. There's two boys, going duck hunting, ... and they spot this. And they did it without thinking."
And Carr's mother said she's not surprised by what the teens did. She said her son always has wanted to help others.
It's been one year since the body of Michael Harris' younger brother was found near the Red River, a year in which he remained unidentified to almost everyone.
Foul play isn't suspected in Daniel Harris' death, but Alexandria Police Department investigators weren't sure when his body was found near the Purple Heart Memorial Bridge on Feb. 12, 2017.
The Town Talk published an article the next day that said there had been no identity made yet on the body assumed to be a male. Then, on Monday night, Michael Harris sent an email to a reporter that read, "while he was unidentified then, he was a person, with family that loved him.
"I wish he had let us serve him better."
Daniel was smart, said Michael. The 44-year-old grew up in Beaumont, Texas, graduating from Lamar University with an associate of business degree and from the University of Phoenix with an associate degree in accountancy.
He also had a real estate license.
But he struggled with mental-health issues, and the family couldn't recognize him when he was off his medication.
"When medicated, he was a productive member of society. He held good positions with his employers and had an active social life," wrote Michael. "When he was off of his medications, he was not the Danny that we knew and loved. I have no doubt that, had he lived, he would have fought his way back. That’s the way he was."
The police department contacted Michael about 10 days after Daniel's body was found, he said. They found him through Daniel's Facebook page. Michael learned that his younger brother had his wallet with him, as well as other items that helped to identify him.
It was determined that Daniel died of natural causes. It's some comfort to his family.
"We will never know what those causes were, but I am grateful knowing that he was not taken away from us under suspicious circumstances," Michael wrote. "I was asked to give my DNA for comparison purposes to my local police department in Pennsylvania in April, and the results came back in November. My DNA and the DNA gathered from the remains were from the same family."
The Alexandria Police Department confirmed Daniel's identity and that homicide isn't suspected from the evidence found at the scene.
Daniel had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, yet hated his medication because he thought it made him gain weight. Michael also said his brother thought he could control himself without the medication.
Daniel had been off his medication for at least six months, maybe longer, said Michael.
He said his family last had contact with Daniel in March 2016, but that wasn't unusual. He was known to disappear, and there had been times that almost a year went by with no contact, he said.
How he got to Alexandria is a mystery, though.
"He had been staying with a friend somewhere in Louisiana and had been asked to leave due to his behavior," he wrote. "I’m not sure how he ended up in Alexandria. I was under the impression that he would be heading back to Texas."
A civil lawsuit filed after the November 2015 fatal shooting death of 6-year-old Jeremy Mardis was settled on Thursday.
An order dismissing the case was signed Thursday by U.S. District Judge Dee Drell. A two-day settlement conference had been held at the federal courthouse in Alexandria.
Participants had been instructed to send representatives to the conference who were authorized to settle the case. On Thursday afternoon, the Marksville Board of Aldermen met in executive session regarding the lawsuit for a "discussion of strategy."
Details about the settlement were not released, and no one involved is allowed to discuss it. The order does stipulate that the case can be reopened in 90 days "if settlement not consummated."
The autistic boy died on the night of Nov. 3, 2015, strapped into the front seat of his aunt's Kia Sportage. He and his father, Christopher Few, had been shot by two Marksville Ward 2 deputy marshals, Derrick Stafford and Norris Greenhouse Jr., at the end of a slow-speed chase through the Avoyelles Parish town.
Few had his hands raised out of the driver's window when the two opened fire. Few was seriously wounded, suffering gunshot wounds to his head and chest.
Both Stafford and Greenhouse are serving prison sentences at the David Wade Correctional Center in Homer.
Off-duty officers. Do-it-yourself systems. Alert eyes of deacons. Training drills.
The plans vary, but the goal is the same: Keep the congregation safe.
The Town Talk spoke with three local pastors about how they approach security at their churches. They shared their thoughts on the broader topic, how they settled on a plan and what the future might hold.
The devil is in the details, says Pastor Chad Stecker.
Security is a topic that involves all members of Arise Church. A security plan was implemented about two years ago at the small Tioga church, and Stecker wants everyone to have situational awareness.
“That to me was the most important thing,” he said. “You can implement all kinds of stuff, but if a church does not as a whole have situational awareness, everything you’re implementing really is, maybe not nullified, but it’s not maximized.”
The church has about 90 members and sees 60 to 65 of those on any given Sunday. And while the congregation knows security is in place, they don’t know exactly who is on the church’s security team or who is carrying a concealed weapon.
“The devil’s in the details, as well. My premise of my sermon this Sunday … is that the devil’s in the details of our sins and mistakes when God is the details of our redemption and future,” said Stecker during a January interview. “So, we have to be very careful when we give details because it could actually do more harm than good. And so, as a whole congregation, we talk about security.”
At the time of the interview, Stecker was facing the unknown because of an incident just days before. He was trying to show to his father a new handgun, and ended up shooting himself point-blank in the palm of his left hand.
Doctors said it would take time before they knew what might happen to his hand. On March 29, Stecker said he'll be having surgery in April so doctors can amputate a finger and reconstruct the hand.
But the shooting hasn't changed his approach to security. He does say he shouldn't have been handling a gun on that January night because he was both upset over the loss of a friend and excited about the arrival of his parents from Colorado.
He wasn't focused on safety, he admits. He credits his father for tending to him as they waited for medical personnel to arrive. His parents still were there, watching over some of his five children, as he walked through his church to talk about the measures he and the leadership have put in place.
In addition to situational awareness and the security team, the church purchased a security system from Amazon that allows Stecker to control who has access to the building from the cellphone he held in his left hand.
Members can exit from inside the building, but the doors will remain locked from the outside. The system means the church no longer has to worry about using keys to get in and out of the building.
“When someone leaves the church, if they took the keys, we no longer have to change the locks on all the doors because they don’t have that," said Stecker. "I can remove them from the system.”
It also allows him to tailor who can have access to the building and on what days.
“Things we do, a small church can do," he said.
But it all comes back to situational awareness, he insisted. The church is planning to begin quarterly drills that will involve the congregation on different scenarios — active shooter, fire. He compared it to military drills, saying members need to practice for such scenarios in the church environment.
"So if a gunman comes in the back, this is what we do: no panic, drop down. We have people in place to take care of this,” said Stecker. "We’re actually preparing the church to be successful when we practice this.”
Joseph Martin
Pastor Joseph Martin Jr. is a retired Marine Corps colonel, an Alexandria Senior High School teacher and a pastor. And he doesn’t want weapons in his church or on its grounds.
That’s not to say that church security isn’t a concern for him and his church, Second Union Missionary Baptist Church in Alexandria. The 2015 shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, in which white supremacist Dylann Roof shot and killed nine people attending a Bible study, made it an issue for them.
Such shootings might not happen that often, but they can’t be ignored, he said. In fact, he said any church or organization that meets regularly without thinking about security is negligent.
But Martin says he’s confident that he, his board of trustees and deacons have an adequate security plan in place.
After Charleston, for which Roof was sentenced to death in 2017, deacons began carrying hand-held radios that make communication easier. They patrol the church and are positioned at various places around the property.
Surveillance cameras were installed, along with screens that allow those inside to monitor activity outside and inside the church, which has a membership of about 350. People coming into the church are greeted as they come to the door.
Martin attended a December meeting hosted by the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office on the topic. He said opinions were divided among the pastors and church leaders about having weapons either inside churches or on church properties.
“I’m certainly one that doesn’t want to have any arms inside,” said Martin, who has been ASH’s Marine Corps JROTC instructor since he retired from active duty in 2000.
He believes the liability of having weapons either inside or outside the church is too great. He said the church knows about the shootings within the past few years and is concerned about them, but he said “knee-jerk reactions” aren’t the answer.
He’s confident that members could handle a situation and alert law enforcement. Martin also believes it’s good to communicate with law enforcement. He and others from his church attended the December meeting and looks forward to more meetings like it.
In addition to his military experience, several other members of his church are retired military. One currently serves with the Louisiana National Guard. The church has put that expertise to work in developing its security plan.
What’s important for Martin is that he knows his members are vigilant “about our surroundings and just try to make sure that we can protect those people who come in and want to worship God.
“One of the biggest things is you just have to some people out there who will be vigilant and know what to look for. From my military training, and from what I have seen, I believe that you can pretty much pick out somebody … if they’re coming there to serve the Lord or they’re coming for some ulterior motive, I think you can pretty much pick some of those people out.”
Still, Martin agrees with those who might say it’s sad that church leaders must take this approach “especially in God’s house, but that’s just the times that we live in.
You have some people now that don’t respect anything, and so you’ve got to be vigilant. You’ve just got to be vigilant.”
James Greer
Journey Church had a security plan in place long before the topic became hot, says Pastor James Greer. It's been a part of the Pineville church's growth plan for years.
“I just thank the Lord we were ahead of the curve,” said Greer, also paraphrasing a Bible verse that calls for being as wise as a serpent yet gentle as a dove.
Greer says Journey has had organized security for five to six years before church shooting incidents began happening. During the passing years, they’ve increased training and have placed people throughout the sanctuary and in the parking lot.
The church has a large campus with several buildings off Donahue Ferry Road in Pineville. It recently opened a campus in Alexandria in the former Economy Boots building on MacArthur Drive.
Greer said he’s glad to see more churches training and putting security plans in place.
“We want all the training we can get, and we do do that,” he said. “Our goal is for that to never happen, but if it does pray that their goal is that can stop them.”
Most of the congregation probably wasn’t aware of the security measures for the first three years, said Greer. But now it’s common knowledge because the concept is more acceptable now.
He also agreed with experts who say, if an incident is going to happen at a church, it’s likely to stem from a domestic issue. He said those who work with youth at the church must undergo background checks. Church employees deal with people are undergoing custody issues, too.
“Everyone is gonna deal with it, at one time or another.”
Journey Executive Pastor Josh Poe said there’s about 30 people on the church’s security team. They have a Facebook group, conduct annual training and do walkthroughs on the campus of different situations.
The group includes some law enforcement members who also are church members.
The church also has started hiring off-duty Rapides Parish Sheriff’s deputies to handle some duties. That was part of the security plan, said Poe, a decision that went into effect when the congregation hit 1,000 members.
It happened right around the time of the Sutherland Springs shooting, he said.
“We’re hitting 1,000 every Sunday and we just felt like that was our next step in security for us,” he said.
Greer said he’s “excited and proud” that the church has a good security team. He credits them with going beyond their duties, like meeting up with him and staying with him even when not required.
