At least four people were stabbed in a church in Albuqureque, New Mexico. NBCNews.com reported that a man went on a rampage stabbing people during the Sunday service's closing hymns.
According to the Albuquerque Police Department, Lawrence Capener, 24, lunged at members of the choir before noon on Sunday and stabbed them with a weapon.
NBCNews.com reported that when police officers arrived at the scene, they found that several parishioners had Capener pinned down to the floor. Police spokesperson Tasia Martinez said to NBCNews.com, "The scene was chaotic when officers arrived and it was quickly ascertained that numerous parishioners essentially jumped on the male offender and held him down until officers arrived."
During the incident four parishioners were injured including flutist, Gerald Madrid and church choir director Adam Alvarez, reported the Associated Press. All four individuals were treated at hospitals and in stable condition.
Capener was booked on three counts of aggravated battery and currently is held on $75,000 bail.
'St. Jude Thaddeus' pastor Father John Daniel said Capener's mother were "very active" in the parish and serves as a Eucharistic minister there. "He was here occasionally but not very often," Daniel said.
Daniel said that Capener had just graduated from a community college and appeared to be doing well after getting a job."
An off duty fire fighter tried to stop Capener and helped to hold him down until police arrived.
'"I bear-hugged him. We were chest on chest. I was wrapping about to take him down to ground, but I didn't have his arms. I had just my arms around his chest, so his arms were free. So that's when he started stabbing me," he said to the AP.
He told the AP that he thought he was being punched but realized that he had been stabbed five times.
The choir's pianist, Brenda Baca King, said to KRQE-TV, "I just remember seeing him hurdle over the pews, hurdle over people and run (toward) us and I thought, 'Oh my God, this is not good,'" Baca King said.
The Archbishop of Santa Fe Michael Sheehan released a statement Sunday saying,
"This is the first time in my 30 years serving as archbishop in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and as bishop of Lubbock, that anything like this has occurred," Sheehan said. "I pray for all who have been harmed, their families, the parishioners and that nothing like this will ever happen again."
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