Watch: Pistol-whipping carjacker picks wrong car — and has instant regrets when pastor gives him shock of his life

New video shows a teen attempting an armed carjacking in crime-ridden Baltimore, but the intended victim — a prominent pastor — fought back and turned the tables on the crook.

Rev. Kenneth Moales Jr. — pastor of Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Bridgeport, Connecticut — was in Baltimore for a funeral in late June.

‘I knew my life was at stake.’

Moales parked his car outside a seafood restaurant in the city’s Upper Fells Point neighborhood just before 9 p.m. June 29, WBAL-TV reported.

A teen wearing a ski mask approached Moales’ vehicle while the pastor was still inside it, the station said, adding that the teenager allegedly asked the pastor for help regarding his dead cell phone.

The teen — armed with a gun — ordered the pastor to exit his vehicle, WBAL said.

“When I looked at him, I knew like something about this wasn’t right. I was looking to kind of drive away, and he immediately pulls up his ski mask,” Moales told WBFF-TV. “Puts it up over his face, whips out the Glock, points it at the car, like, ‘Get out the car.'”

Moales added to WJZ-TV, “He’s placed materialism over my life, and unfortunate[ly] for him, he picked the wrong car.”

The pastor made a split-second decision to fight back against the young carjacker.

“I immediately got into a fight. So I just punched him in the face. I reach out for the gun,” Moales recalled to WBFF.

Surveillance video shows Moales tackling the teen and slamming him on the wet pavement for approximately 20 seconds.

Moales also told WBFF, “I really believe I was fighting for my life and, more importantly, trying to get home to my wife and children.”

Citing charging documents, WBAL reported that the carjacker pistol-whipped the pastor in the head.

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During the melee, Moales recounted to WJZ that he was able to wrestle the gun away from the teenager.

What’s more, the pastor offered the teen an opportunity to get away.

Moales recalled to WBFF, “I realize how young he is, and that’s when I tell him, ‘Hey, I’m a pastor. Relax, calm down. I’m a pastor. I’m not going to press charges. You know, I’m going to let you go, but you’ve got to get out of here.'”

However, the carjacker didn’t accept the offer — and proceeded to steal the pastor’s vehicle.

“I told him, ‘I’m a father, a husband, and a pastor, and you can just go now, and I won’t press charges,'” Moales recounted to WVIT-TV. “But even after all of that — after I had let him go and given him a chance to not face charges — he still drove off in my car.”

He added to WBFF, “You would think once I let him know I was a pastor that there would be, in one way or another, some level of remorse, and there was neither, none at all. He [couldn’t] care less. And that’s what’s left me hurt — I’m not going to say broken — [but] hurt, concerned, and knowing what my new mission is.”

The pastor suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to a statement from his congregation.

WJZ reported that within hours of the carjacking, officers with the Baltimore Police Department located the pastor’s vehicle with three suspects inside — ages 15, 16, and 19.

All three teenagers were arrested and charged with auto theft, WBAL said.

The two minors were not identified because they are underage, but WBAL identified the 19-year-old suspect as Mehkai Tindal, according to charging documents. It isn’t clear which of the three attacked Moales.

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The harrowing experience provided the pastor with an eye-opening perspective — and a new mission.

Moales told WVIT, “I have forgiven the young man — but this violent crime just shows me that I need to work even harder to help young people right here in Bridgeport, because a lot of these kids are hopeless and this problem is not unique to Baltimore.”

The pastor added to WBFF, “If we don’t commit to educating this generation in a significant way, what happened to me is just a beginning. If they’ll, if they’ll pistol-whip a pastor, you about know what they’ll do to my members.”

Moales noted to WBAL, “My prayer today is, ‘God, thank you for covering me. Thank you for my life.'”

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