At least two people, including a gunman, were killed and one person was critically injured after a shootout at a church in Texas on Sunday, authorities said.
According to Mike Tinius, the elder at the church, West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, near Fort Worth in Texas, the shooter killed a member of the church's security team before being fatally shot by another security personnel.
"He (the deceased security member) was trying to do what he needed to do to protect the rest of us," The New York Times quoted Tinius as saying while calling the security member a "dear friend".
"It's extremely upsetting to see anyone committing violence," he added.
The elder also said that the gunman was not known to the congregation and the church appeared to be a target as it was filled with people.
He said that the shooting occurred near the beginning of the service.
"This is quite obvious to us a random act that is disturbing. We are continuing to hold on to what we believe and that doesn't change," Tinius further said.
Police obtained reports of shots fired in the area at around 10 am (local time), according to Mike Drivdahl, a spokesperson for the Fort Worth Fire Department.
Off-duty officers down the street immediately responded and found an active shooting situation, he added.
Meanwhile, Macara Trusty, a spokeswoman for MedStar Mobile Healthcare, an ambulance provider, confirmed that the gunman was one of the two people killed in the shootout. She also said that another person was rushed to a hospital in critical condition.
"Two other people were treated for minor injuries at the scene," she added.
The New York Police Department and it's Counterterrorism Bureau tweeted that they were monitoring the developments in the church shooting in Texas.
The shootout in Texas took place barely hours after a man went on a stabbing spree at a rabbi's home during a Hanukkah celebration in New York's Rockland Country, wounding five people.
All five victims of the incident are Hasidic Jews, as per a tweet by Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council. Two of these five people are in critical condition.
( With inputs from ANI )