Pastor Jack Moriarty (seen here in a 2012 photo) led Redeemed Outreach Center in downtown Phoenix. Moriarty was shot and killed Friday during a home invasion.
(Photo: Nick Oza, The Arizona Republic)
A pastor known for his work with inmates and the homeless was killed in a home invasion Friday night in Phoenix.
Jack Moriarty, 53, was pastor at the Redeemed Outreach Center in downtown Phoenix.
The investigation is ongoing, but police said three people were in the home when two unknown men entered. Moriarty was shot and killed and another male occupant was assaulted, Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Jonathan Howard said. The third occupant was able to hide in her room and call for help.
The two men took some personal property and fled, Howard said.
The home invasion was less than a mile from where a Catholic priest, the Rev. Kenneth Walker, was murdered in June.
Moriarty, known to his congregation as Pastor Jack, led Redeemed Outreach, which offers recently released offenders a place to stay, food to eat and a disciplined, but open, program to help former inmates readjust to life outside of prison.
Clover Lucky, now an assistant residential manager at the center’s women’s halfway house, came to Moriarty for help in 2009. Lucky said Moriarty was a friend and provider to all.
“He was a rescuer of human souls,” Lucky said. “He had an open heart, and open door to all those who needed it.”
The women’s halfway house is across the street from the crime scene. Lucky said she was notified almost immediately after the incident.
“We were in here finishing up Bible study when we found out,” Lucky said.
People gathered outside the Redeemed Outreach Center to process the news.
Richard Garcia, who has been affiliated with Redeemed Outreach for nearly five years, said Moriarty didn’t care about rewards and recognition.
“We just lost a strong soldier,” Garcia said. “He got down into the nitty and gritty part of the streets and was a leader by example.”
Police are looking for the two men involved in the shooting.
SOURCE: The Arizona Republic – Jennifer Soules
