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By Melissa Lauber
UMConnection Staff

Troy Bussey, 24, was fatally wounded at the door of Jones Memorial UMC in southeast Washington as he tried to escape a gunman, who shot him six to eight times, on the afternoon of March 28.

'I believe he thought, ?if I get into the church, I?ll be safe,?' said the Rev. Loretta Johnson. 'He saw the church as a safe haven.'

Bussey was an employee of a charter school housed at Jones Memorial. Approximately 40 children, ages 3-6, attend the school, which provides bus transportation to and from the church. The victim worked as a safety monitor on the bus.

He usually reported each afternoon between 4:15 and 4:30 p.m. at the back door by the parking lot. However, on that Wednesday afternoon, teachers at the school heard someone 'frantically pressing the doorbell,' Johnson said.

'Several of them rushed to the door to see. They saw another gentleman, a young man, fire six to eight shots into the head, back and arm of the man at the door and then disappear.'

The teachers called 911. 'When the neighbors heard the ?pop-pop-pop? sound they scurried around, finding safe places. In a few moments the street was swarming with police.

A helicopter airlifted Bussey to Washington Hospital Center, where it was reported that he was pronounced dead three hours after his arrival.

Although overwhelmed, Johnson said she was not shocked by the incident. A few years earlier a similar shooting occurred on the steps to the sanctuary. 'Kiddy car thieves shoot their playmates, here,' Johnson said.

'This is typical for this community,' she said. 'It?s a way of life for the community. There are drugs here, there?s low income housing, violence ? you name it. These people have heard the sound of gunshot and sirens before. It?s when they don?t hear the sirens that they know something is really up.'

On the day after the shooting, the neighborhood was 'back to business as usual,' Johnson said. 'It?s as quiet as a church chapel.'

While Johnson counsels Bussey?s family and the teachers and arranges for specialized counseling for the children at the school, she worries that the church?s response will end with comfort.

'It?s going to take a whole lot more than prayer and a sermon on Sunday. This community needs holistic healing,' she said.

'When Jesus said, ?go into all the world and make disciples,? he meant for us to do more than invite people to worship. The church needs to change people?s hearts ? and not just people living in abundance. We need to be with people living in want. We have to roll up our sleeves and get ourselves dirty with the people,' Johnson said.

But Johnson also doesn?t discount the need for comfort. Preparing to meet with the victim?s family, she struggled, asking God to give them whatever they need in this moment. 'I want to let them know they are still loved by God. And that their son was loved by God, even in the moment this all happened.'

'I?ll try to follow God?s lead,' she said, hoping all churches will do the same, allowing this incident to awaken them to the needs of communities in the inner city.

'It is overwhelming to see the brokenness, to see people struggling to survive just another 24 hours and knowing this is happening day after day, year after year,' Johnson said.

'We need to care beyond prayer.'