Not sure if you’ve seen this yet, but the more I think about this, the more my heart breaks…

Jonathan Ayers, pastor of Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia, Ga., died during the night of Sept. 1, hours after being shot by undercover police officers outside a gas station where he had just gotten money from an ATM machine.

The Stephens County Sheriff’s Office initially identified the shooting victim as a suspect involved in a drug transaction. Later officials clarified that drug enforcement agents were not investigating Ayers, but a woman who was riding in his car whom he had dropped off moments earlier.

Jonathan Ayers had been pastor of Shoals Creek Baptist Church a little over a year.

Officials said the officers didn’t know who Ayers was and wanted to talk to him. They were in plain clothes, but they claim they wore badges around their necks and identified themselves as police when they asked him to open his car door. Instead, they say, Ayers put the car in reverse and fled, striking one officer and causing minor injuries.

Police fired at the fleeing vehicle. One bullet struck Ayers in the abdomen. He managed to drive away but crashed about a half mile away. Police found him conscious and alert, but he died several hours later after surgery.

Friends and family believe Ayers thought the men were going to rob him and that he got scared and tried to run away.  Police have not identified the woman, who is charged with selling cocaine. Ayers’ sister, Rebecca Floyd, said her younger brother was known to help strangers.

“I could bet my life on it that he did not know her,” Floyd told television station WYFF News 4. “I could bet my life on it, because that’s the kind of person he was. He was a good Christian man…. His goal was to lead souls to Christ.”

My heart breaks for this man’s pregnant wife left without a husband and for his church left without a pastor.  I served on the grand jury for three months last year and gained a whole new respect for what officers go through each day on the streets.  But, to open fire on an allegedly innocent man who was driving away from undercover officers in an unmarked car seems excessive.

Please join me in praying for the family and church of Jonathan Ayers and for the officers who were involved in this tragic situation.