HOUSTON – A driver was arrested after police said a truck drove through a church on Sunday night, severely injuring one of the occupants.
According to police, the crash happened at Calvary Pentecostal Church of God, located in the 1000 block of Tidwell Road near Irvington at around 7:44 p.m.
Houston police say a red truck with two passengers inside hit a vehicle then drove through the church and hit a gas meter.
Pastor Mark Cox says he had just dismissed their 6 p.m. service before the crash occurred, however, there were still 15-20 people inside the church.
None of the churchgoers were injured.
One of the occupants was said to have had a pole go through their shoulder. That passenger is now in critical condition.
“I am just thankful everybody is ok, nobody got hurt,” Pastor Cox said. “My wife and 7-year-old daughter are ok. They were inside the building.”
Cox said there were a couple of members standing outside when it happened, but they moved out of the way and nobody got hurt.
“One of our members was in the restroom. We have a men’s bathroom, the men’s bathroom was totally destroyed. The women’s bathroom is ok. There was a lady in the restroom when it happened. It sounded like an explosion, a war explosion and we didn’t know exactly what happened,” Cox said.
“So we had natural gas spewing everywhere and then he crashed into our building and in doing that, one of the fence posts impaled his wife all way through her shoulder. It was ticking out through the windshield to the front, sticking out at an angle,” praise and worship leader James Gentry said.
Pastor Cox said they had to forcefully stop the driver from trying to pull away from the church after striking the building. The driver was arrested.