Tom Smith, California pastor, shot by instructor during gun safety course

The pastor at a church in Modesto, California was recovering this week from a gunshot to the waist he received while participating in recent firearms safety class.

Pastor Tom Smith was shot on Dec. 5. towards the end of a safety course taught at the Personal Protection Institute in central California when his instructor, Phillip Rushing, was giving an impromptu demonstrator.

Mr. Rushing, an eighth degree black belt, had already taken his rubber training gun out of his holster and replaced it with his real handgun when one of his students asked him to show the proper way to neutralize an attacker armed with a knife, the Modesto Bee reported on Monday this week.

“During the scenario, the instructor drew the firearm and it accidentally discharged,” Modesto Police Department spokeswoman Heather Graves told the newspaper. “When it fired and he realized what happened, he immediately dialed 911.”

The spokeswoman told the Bee that she did not know if the instructor had forgot he had replaced the phony firearm with a real one, or if he was aware he was drawing an actual gun when he was giving the demonstration. No charges had been filed against Mr. Rushing, she said, but the Modesto Police’s investigations unit could ultimately decide to refer the matter to the District Attorney’s Office for prosecution. 

The pastor  was suffering from a single bullet to the hip and was “still in much pain but pulling through the physical therapy” as of Friday, the The House Modesto church said through its Facebook page.

“The church is praying for him, and the city is praying for him and his family,” church member Elijah Collins told KOVR News this week. “He’s very missed right now.”