NC pastor ‘expressed grief and horror’ after police said he peed on plane passenger
Confronted by the pastors of a Raleigh-Durham church where he worked, a man accused of peeing on a female plane passenger “expressed grief and horror” over the incident, the pastors told The Charlotte Observer Friday night.
Daniel Chalmers then immediately resigned from his non-pastoral support role at Catch the Fire Raleigh-Durham church, lead pastors Murray and Ash Smith said in a statement.
Chalmers was responsible for communications projects and some teaching assignments in Catch the Fire’s School of Revival, the pastors said in Friday’s statement.
“Catch the Fire Raleigh-Durham was shocked and saddened to learn on Tuesday” about Chalmers’ arrest in connection with the Oct. 12 incident aboard a late-night Delta flight from Las Vegas to Detroit, according to the Smiths’ statement.
The pastors said they asked Chalmers why he’d waited to tell them about his arrest, and that’s when he expressed the grief and horror “over his actions and and the effects on his fellow passenger,” according to the statement.
Chalmers was not traveling on business related to Catch the Fire Raleigh-Durham at the time, according to the Smiths.
Chalmers has not replied to a phone and email message from the Observer.
Chalmers and his wife, Shara Lea Chalmers, also lead Love Wins Ministries in Raleigh, which “has no official connection” to Catch the Fire Raleigh-Durham, the Smiths said.
According to a Detroit Airport Police report, Chalmers acknowledged peeing on the passenger during an Oct. 12 flight from Las Vegas to Detroit, but later denied it, the Observer previously reported.
Chalmers acknowledged having “a couple of drinks” before the flight, and said he was taking “prescribed medicine,” according to the police report released to The Charlotte Observer and other news outlets.
Chalmers’ eyes were bloodshot and he smelled of alcohol when officers detained him after the flight, according to the police report. “Chalmers also stated he took an (word redacted) before he left from Vegas.”
According to the police report, the victim “woke up feeling something warm on her body and when she looked up to her right, she observed Mr. Chalmers standing next to her shaking his exposed penis. (She) stated that she then noticed that Mr. Chalmers urinated on her and she started screaming.”
A police officer who happened to be seated in the emergency row said he asked the victim what happened, and she replied: “He peed on me!,” according to the police report.
“I then asked Chalmers: ‘What did you do?’ and he replied, ‘I peed on her, I thought I was going to the bathroom,’” the officer said in the report.
The incident occurred at 2:44 a.m., and most passengers were asleep, police said.
The victim, a 28-year-old Detroit woman, told WJBK-TV, the Detroit FOX affiliate, that she was asleep beside her sister when she “felt something warm,” woke up, saw the man’s private area and screamed.
In Friday’s statement, the Smiths said: “Our heart goes out to the other passenger. We can only imagine the trauma she has experienced.”
They added that, “as a church, we believe that each one of us need the grace of God in our lives. We believe that God has an amazing plan and purpose for each one of us.
“Therefore, we are actively praying for both the airline passenger and her family, as well as Daniel and his family,” the Smiths said. “There is a tremendous need for comfort and healing.”