INTERVIEW: Shreveport pastor, wife witness mass shooting at Allen Premium Outlets in Texas

SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) - On Saturday, May 6, nine people, including the shooter, were killed and seven others were injured in a mass shooting at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas.

A Shreveport pastor and his wife were there shopping with their daughter and granddaughter when the bullets started flying.

Pastor Leroy Ealy, who has been with Bryant Temple Church of God in Christ for 17 years, says he believes God kept them safe that day. His wife, Jo Ann, says the couple wanted a night away from Shreveport and were visiting their daughter at the time. They visited the outlet mall, like they usually do, and stopped at the H&M when they suddenly heard shots being fired.

The Ealys say at first, they thought the shooter was a police officer because he was dressed in some kind of dark-colored body armor. They knew something was wrong when he got out of a car holding a gun up. That’s when he first fired into the air.

Jo Ann says they started to run, but she fell. Leroy managed to hide behind an SUV, but came back for Jo Ann when the shooter turned in the opposite direction and began to fire at others.

“The bullets was just coming all around us. It’s like, I don’t know, I couldn’t hear anything else. I didn’t hear glass break, but he shot windows and things out, but I couldn’t hear anything,” said Jo Ann.

A Shreveport pastor and his wife were there shopping with their daughter and granddaughter when the bullets started flying.

The couple says they were able to finally run and hide in some restrooms until it was safe to come out.

Leroy says at one point, he made eye contact with the shooter before he fully realized what was happening.

“I’m just grateful and appreciative to God that he spared our lives and I know it had to have been an act of God because a bullet of that sort should’ve hit one of us,” Leroy said. “But I’m very hurtful for the families that were lost and had tragedies and even the victims and as well as the shooter’s family as well, and as a church family, we are continuously praying for those individuals.”

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