Man arrested outside Salt Lake City Cathedral and charged with assault

Lina Portman4 weeks ago

0 2 minutes read

SALT LAKE CITY (OSV News) — As the 11 a.m. Sunday Mass began May 26 at Madeleine Cathedral, Father Martin Diaz noted that “a kind of commotion” was happening in the back.

He interrupted the mass and asked those present to remain seated because recently there had been two medical emergencies during services at the cathedral.

Because of these situations, “I think I was hyper alert and just asking people to sit down,” said Father Diaz, rector of the cathedral. However, after a few moments, “the mass continued normally”.

Subsequently, he said, he learned that Willie Green, the cathedral sexton, had twice asked a man sitting on the ground with his feet in the aisle to sit on a pew. The man stood up and swung a bamboo cane at Green, who ducked, and the cane hit another cathedral employee in the forehead without much force, Father Diaz said.

At that point, several parishioners escorted the man outside and held him until police arrived and arrested him, Father Diaz said, adding: “The video outside shows eight to ten men surrounding the man. The police arrived quite quickly.

According to the Salt Lake City Police Department's “probable cause affidavit,” the suspect “struck two victims with a bamboo wooden sword.” He then punched a third victim, knocking her glasses off and breaking them. … There is no known motive and (the suspect) is not at all known to the victims involved in this case.

The suspect resisted arrest, according to the affidavit, which listed the charges as aggravated assault and interfering with a peace officer.

Father Diaz said there was no damage to the cathedral and no one reported any injuries.

The priest told the Intermountain Catholic, Salt Lake City's diocesan newspaper, that he had been at the cathedral for 11 years “and this is the first time something like this … has happened.”

The assault on the Salt Lake City Cathedral is one of the latest incidents at Catholic churches in the United States and Canada, including a Texas priest being pepper-sprayed while hearing confessions in April and 10 protesters disrupting Easter Vigil mass at St. Patrick's. New York Cathedral on March 30.

These incidents can vary in severity, but all highlight the need for parishes to implement stricter security measures, experts told OSV News in an April interview.

In security industry parlance, churches and other religious structures are known as “soft targets”: civilian public spaces that are easily accessible and typically have limited security measures. Growing recognition of this vulnerability has led to initiatives such as the Department of Homeland Security's Places of Worship Protection Program and the annual Church Security Essentials Conference, which took place April 25-26 in Austin, Texas.

Preserving both pastoral hospitality and common-sense security in places of worship can be a delicate balance, said Craig Gundry of Critical Intervention Services, a Tampa, Fla.-based security consulting firm with extensive experience in church security.

“Churches tend to be very open communities, and that’s desirable. That’s what we want to create,” Gundry told OSV News. “And that obviously presents some challenges from a security perspective. »

Gundry said his company has particularly focused on the details of “improving the physical security of churches while maintaining an environment conducive to community and spiritual celebration.”

In addition to developing emergency response policies and procedures, building a “church security team (is) very valuable,” Gundry said.

“They basically serve as guardians of the herd…observing and monitoring potential threats,” he said.

Gina Christian, multimedia journalist for OSV News, contributed to this story.