On December 5th, 2007, eight people were killed in shootings by a young gunman at the Von Maur clothing store in Omaha, NE. Six others were wounded by his ak47 rifle. As a police chaplain I was called out with about 20 other chaplains to minister to the survivors and their families. I was the only one assigned to University Medical Center, where I visited and prayed with two shooting victims and several of their family and friends in ER and outside emergency surgery. The next day I was on duty and was summoned early to counsel with a suicidal person. It was the mother of the shooter. I praise the Lord our time together went well. Two days later she was on national television telling her story on the Good Morning America program. The Omaha Police Department, in a debriefing afterwards, commended all of the chaplains for their excellent work during the crisis. To the best of my knowledge I am the only fundamental Baptist in the OPD Chaplain Corps at this time, and I was grateful for this opportunity to be a witness for Christ.
Pastor Greg Ubbens
Grace Baptist Church
Omaha, NE
Pastor Ubbens is a volunteer police chaplain in Omaha, NE. He is “on call” one or more times each month for 24 hours and goes to emergency situations, makes death notifications with an officer, and does “ride alongs.” He has also been assigned to the Special Victims Unit and Domestic Violence Unit and helps in those difficult situations.
