Clerics who tote weapons can make headlines for the wrong reasons, but in the case of Indiana Pastor Carl Sanders he used his weapon to foil a robbery in progress.

Sanders of Covenant Life Ministries felt obligated to stop the attempted robbery suspect at a local discount store, so he pulled out his licensed handgun and saved the day.

It seemed a normal night when Pastor Sanders walked into the Dollar General Store in Evansville, Ind. on the night of October 18 to buy a soft drink.

He was approached by a man who appeared to be robbing a cashier.

Minutes before Sander's entrance, the suspect, 25-year-old Jermaine Dewayne Marshall, had ordered the cashier to open the cash register.

When the employee had refused, Marshall had struck him repeatedly in the face christianpost.com stated.

Just after that Pastor Sanders walked into the store and was immediately instructed to get on the ground.

Sanders told WFIE-TV, "That's when I pulled my weapon and said, 'No, you get on the ground.'"

After the pastor called the police, he managed to keep Marshall inside the store until the police arrived.

He told the television station he was not a hero, he just happened to be in the right place at the right time, doing God's will.

"I told him don't move, put your face down on the ground and don't even look at me right now. I just told him this is out of love," Sanders said.

The pastor told WFIE that he wanted the suspect to know he was not going to hurt him, he was just teaching him a lesson.

"I laid my life down for some people, knowing they were going to be OK," Sanders said, adding that Marshall "didn't deserve to be hurt, I wasn't going to hurt him, but I wanted him to know you can't do this."

After the police arrived they discovered Marshall did not have a gun; he had wrapped a spoon in a plastic bag, misleading the victims into thinking it was a firearm.

Marshall was then arrested and faced with numerous charges.

Pastor Sanders did what any hero would do; he went with his gut instinct and managed to stop a crime that could have gone horribly wrong.

No one in the store was reported injured, and Pastor Sanders plans on visiting the suspect Marshall in jail.