Friend: Man fatally shot by pastor was confronting him about affair

DETROIT (WJBK) - Authorities are determining if a Detroit pastor will be charged after they say he fatally shot someone in his church this past Sunday. Police say the victim, 25-year-old Deante Smith, was shot at four to five times by the pastor of The City of God church on Grand River Avenue.

Friends of Smith's say the pastor is 36-year-old Keon Allison, and that Smith apparently had gone to the church to confront the pastor about having an affair with his wife. That's when police say Smith attacked the church leader with a brick.

"I know the event that happened Sunday could have been prevented, and my friend's dead and we got the pastor I looked up to as being pointed at," says Smith's friend, Jamie Warfield.

We're told Smith was a standout on the football team, helping the Michigan Lightning semi-pro football team win the Crossroads championship in 2014. Friends say he was a positive force on the team. They say the story police are telling about what happened at the church during Sunday service seems so out of Smith's character.

"That's not like my friend, not like the Deante I [saw]. He never acted like that around me. He was always a good person, smiling, asking me to come back to church," Warfield says.

Pastor Allison was taken in by police for questioning but we're told he was released later that night.

Now those who knew and loved Smith are questioning how a man who was more like a father figure to him could do something like this in a place of worship.

"He was a good person. I pray that justice is served," Warfield says.

A spokesperson for the Detroit Police says their investigators are still working hard on this case to figure out what happened. Once their investigation is complete, a report will be sent to the prosecutor's office to determine whether charges will be filed, and if this shooting was justified or not.