Two consecutive explosions happened at two churches in Las Cruces, N.M. Sunday morning. These explosions triggered investigations by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, according to ABC News. Dan Trujillo, Public Information Officer of the Las Cruces Police Department, said there were no injuries reported, but both church congregations were shocked.
Trujillo added that the explosions will still have separate investigations. "It's unlikely for us to have two incidents like this on the same day 20 minutes apart and have them not be connected," Trujillo said to the Washington Post.
The first of the two explosions went off around 8:20 a.m. in the southern part of Las Cruces through a device a that was placed inside a mailbox. At this moment, members of the Calvary Baptist Church were just starting to gather for the morning's mass. After twenty minutes, another bomb exploded inside a trash can just outside the Holy Cross Catholic Church which is a few minutes drive from the other church. Only the glass panel in front of the church was shattered, injuring no one but leaving church goers stunned.
"I was right in the middle of saying the words 'take and eat, this is my body' and there was a Pow! I mean, I knew it had to be more than a gunshot," Monsignor John Anderson of Holy Cross said. "It didn't know if it was a shotgun blast, I didn't know what. But it was very loud and I just kept on saying the words," he added, according to Las Cruces Sun-News.
Denis Llewellyn of Cavalry Baptist, an ex-special forces member of the Marines, identified the debris as parts of a bomb. "It was a real bomb, I saw all the parts," he said. Mike Stewart of the same church, together with Llewellyn, stopped members of their church from going into the building before the police arrived, USA Today reported.
At a conference Sunday night, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez said, "Only a coward would place an explosive device in a place of peace and a place of worship." She added, "If your intention was to bring fear to those who worship, you have failed. Our faith is too strong and our fellowship is unbreakable," the Washington Post added.
