Church leader shot in head while street preaching

PHOENIX — A congregation is in shock as one of its leaders fights for his life. According to police, Hans Schmidt was preaching on the street Wednesday night when someone shot him in the head.

Prayers are pouring in for the 26-year-old beloved husband and father. Friends and family say they can't understand why this happened.

"Who knows why someone would take it out on a preacher like that." Victory Chapel Preacher Henry Branch shared. "You know, because he's speaking to the gospel and the good news to everybody. He's out to help the community."

Apparently, Schmidt was out street preaching, which is something he did on a regular basis before helping lead weekly services at the Victory Chapel as door director. At some point, while Schmidt was on the corner preaching, someone passed along, shot him in the head, then took off.

Paul Sanchez works nearby and says, when Schmidt was out preaching, he saw some people driving along the road, screaming and cursing at Schmidt.

"A slurry of everything really," Sanchez said. "I mean, hateful comments, people yelling at him just get off the street, all sorts of mean things."

He never imagined things would escalate, especially since he says Schmidt never confronted anyone or responded to the mean comments.

Larry Dettman was at services a pastor told the congregation what happened. Minutes later, the pastor ran off to the hospital to check on Schmidt.

"Out of nowhere, how does this happen? You know, there's some evil people in this world that got a bunch of human junk in their life and they take it on to somebody else," Parishioner Larry Dettman explained. "So, people are following darkness instead of light to, asking God to help him and heal him."

Glendale police don't know if the shooter was in a vehicle or on foot. However, since the shooting happened at a busy intersection they're hoping someone who saw what happened steps forward.

Schmidt is in critical condition.