A shooting in Florida outside a church has left two dead, including one 15 year-old boy. The pastor said: "God can use this as an opportunity to bring people to him."
Three people were shot following the funeral on Saturday afternoon on the street in front of Victory City Church in Riviera Beach.
The shooting was reported just after 2:30pm
Riveria Beach police said the shooting was not an accident and that the victims and shooters were known to each other.
The only name being released is 47-year-old Royce Freeman, who died alongside a 15 year-old boy.
A female is being treated for non-life threatening injuries.
The church's senior pastor, Tywuante D. Lupoe, said in a video posted on Facebook: "We were very well aware of the potential of violence that could have taken place at this funeral. We did alarm our staff, our security here. Some of our security, they are armed, and they were on the ground, along with Riviera beach police department, who were here at that particular funeral."
The pastor assured viewers that no one from the church was injured and that it wasn't an attack on the church. He also asked the church in another post to pray for the families affected: "We solicit the prayers of the saints today as we mourn the lost of two young black men to a sensless shooting after a funeral held here at the church."
He added in the video that the shooting was God "giving the crimes of the region to the body of Christ" and also referenced the recent death of basketballer Kobe Bryant.
He suggested that the national suffering could be a sign of scripture being fulfilled and that "the end is near".
"Maybe God allowed this to happen so that people know Jesus is real.
"It was not God who did this act, it was the enemy that did this act but God can use this as an opportunity to bring people to him."
So far, no arrests have been made.
