On July 7, a young African-American man gunned down five police officers, and injured 11 others, including two civilians, at the conclusion of what had been a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest. The incident followed a series of police shootings of African-American men earlier in the year.
David (name changed for privacy), a young black man, was watching the aftermath of the tragedy on TV from his bunk in a California prison. As he watched the news roll in, David found himself internally delighting in what seemed like justice to him.
“My first instinct with my hand in the air was to shout ‘YES!’ ”
Involved with the police almost his entire life, David did not hold law enforcement in high regard. At the same time, he had become connected to a Prison Fellowship program and Christian teachings while in prison, and instantly knew that this line of thinking wasn’t honoring to God.
“In just a few minutes, I was so convicted at my thoughts and actions. God reminded me that my reaction was the old man reacting not the new man that I am today,” he later confessed to Janice Little, Prison Fellowship field director in California. Those officers were good men, husbands and fathers and had nothing to do with my past. I was so convicted that I began to cry out and the Holy Spirit brought to my mind several things that I had never confessed and needed to. I begin to pray, confess and cry . . . time passed before I knew it. I had been praying for an hour.”
David told Janice that he is praying for the officers’ families.