Video shows moments leading up to shooting that left Glendale street preacher injured
GLENDALE, Ariz. - Glendale Police released a video related to a shooting that left a street preacher badly injured in mid-November.
The shooting happened on Nov. 15. According to our report at the time, 26-year-old Hans Schmidt was standing on the corner of the intersection at 51st and Peoria avenues, preaching to the public about attending a nearby church service at Victory Chapel First Phoenix, when the shooting happened.
Schmidt, who is a married military medic and a father to two young children, was taken to the hospital in critical condition. He had recently moved to Arizona.
"This is a horrible, horrible event. We have a 26-year-old who is a military man, who was recently married and has two small children. He's in a critical state," said Gina Winn of the Glendale Police Department.
Detectives do not know if Schmidt was targeted, or if the shooting was random.
On Dec. 5, Glendale Police released surveillance camera video of the incident. In the video, Schmidt was seen standing on a street corner when he suddenly fell forward. He was then seen getting back up.
"In the video, you can see Schmidt is on the street corner, you see a lot of cars driving by, a lot of people in the area, but it doesn't seem like anybody else is reacting to what happened. He gets back up, picks up his belongings, but we do not see anybody else driving by that seemed like something ordinary is going on," says Glendale Police Sgt. Randy Stewart.
He asks those in the area, if they saw anything, to please come forward.
"Obviously in the video, you can see there was a lot of people there, that somebody maybe has some information that may help us with this investigation," he said.
'We ask for your prayers'
Schmidt was shot in the head. He's still in critical condition.
"Last I heard he was not, but I didn't hear if he was actually talking today or not," Sgt. Stewart said.
A suspect has not been caught, and it's unclear if the suspect was shooting from a car or on foot.
Victory Chapel First Phoenix says this is something Schmidt is known for, but that night was vastly different.
"We ask for your prayers. We ask that you would lift up Hans Schmidt in your prayers for a miracle of healing so that he and his lovely young family can be reunited," Pastor Gary Marsh with Victory Chapel said.
Hans Schmidt (Courtesy: Glendale Police Department)
Glendale Police need help to put the pieces together.
"Unfortunately, in this case, we are looking for some type of lead that is going to help us in this case. Just recently we did go to Silent Witness to try to see if we can get more information out there to see if we can get someone to come forward with information," Sgt. Randy Stewart said.
Sgt. Stewart explains how the public can help them solve this case.
"In this case, we obviously go through any type of video surveillance that we have. Obviously, we have the one video on the street corner that we were able to release, but we also do a canvas of the area of any businesses that might have surveillance video. We're trying to look for something that is out of the ordinary that might give us a clue of a vehicle, suspect or if they were on foot, in the car when this occurred," he said.
A reward of $10,000 is being offered through Silent Witness.
As the investigation continues, anyone with information should leave an anonymous tip by calling Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS. Spanish speakers can leave an anonymous tip by calling Testigo Silencioso at 480-TESTIGO.
(Si tiene alguna información sobre este caso, llame a la línea de Testigo Silencioso [480-TESTIGO, 480-837-8446.])
Fundraiser for Hans Schmidt
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