Byron Watson is a pastor who wears a bullet-proof vest and carries a gun. As one of the St. Louis County Police Department’s 32 chaplains (10 of them, like Watson, are black), he is often in harm’s way.
“That’s a dynamic I can’t live with – that a man of God has to wear a bulletproof vest,” Watson said. “But I am not going to put on riot gear or pull out my weapon.”
Working out of the North County Precinct, Watson goes wherever the action is to see if anyone on the scene needs to talk – or pray. He is spiritually armed and available to minister to victims, their family members, and police officers alike.
He finds that many people on the victim side are surprised to find that a police department employs spiritual leaders who report to crime scenes. Police officers know about his role, but may be hesitant to take advantage of it. “They don’t want to be seen as showing weakness,” Watson said.
So, he has learned to look for a certain gleam in an officer’s eye. “I get in their peripheral view,” he said. “I don’t approach them. I let them approach me.” He has prayed with cops in hospital corridors, around corners near crime scenes, and in their squad cars.
Watson understands their work and pain. He retired from the St. Louis County Police Department as a sergeant after 35 years and still answers to the nickname “Sarge.” (He also served as a voice of law enforcement on the Ferguson Commission.) He never expected to find himself back on the police force, but after he was ordained as an elder in his church, he answered the call to put back on a badge with his cross.
Ministering to families of victims, who so often are lost to senseless violence, poses an ongoing problem. Where is God in a world with so much senseless death and pain? Watson often has to answer this question. He puts it in God’s hands.
“I tell them, ‘God doesn’t think like we do,’” Watson said. “I don’t have the answer. But I know there are some things that are beyond our thought process. I tell them, ‘It’s okay to be mad. It’s okay to be angry. God understands that. But God’s will has to be done.’ It’s hard to explain.”
He responded to the hospital twice on September 12 when both a 3-year-old, Rodney March III, and a 13-year-old, Clifford Swan III, were fatally shot in North County that day. He ministered to both officers and families.
“It’s mainly praying with them,” he said of the families. “There’s nothing you can say. Sometimes I don’t say anything. I just sit there with them. And sometimes that’s all they need. To know they are not alone.”
Watson grew up in North St. Louis and was raised Baptist in Mt. Olive Baptist Church. “It was ingrained in me at a young age,” he said. “I knew God. When I found myself floating away, I always made my way back.” He converted to the Apostolic faith after marrying a woman in that faith and now worships at Faith Miracle Temple in North County. As an elder of the church, he performs baptisms and does outreach on the streets.
He sees the streets and the community changing. They are, he said, more godless. He has been invited to conduct many funerals after ministering to a victim’s family at a crime scene simply because they knew no one else to ask. “So many of them don’t have a home church or know a pastor,” Watson said. “Many times, I am the first person who ever said to someone, ‘Let me pray for you.’”
It may be the first but often is not the last time they seek the solace of prayer.
“Times like this is when people draw close to God,” Watson said. “Man cannot soothe the pain they are going through. I always try to give them hope that whatever they are going through is God’s will. Even in the darkest hours, God is with them.”
