As Sunday Mass was coming to an end at a Catholic church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, attendees got a horrific surprise. Albuquerque Police say a man leaped over pews, headed toward the church choir, and proceeded to stab church attendees according to USA Today.
Authorities say 24-year-old Lawrence Capener made his way to the choir and stabbed four individuals as the church was singing its final hymn. His attack went on until other attendees jumped in to overpower Capener untl police arrived on the scene.
"While that was going on, people were just panicking," 18-year old Reyes Stinson told The Los Angeles Times. "It was scary, you wouldn’t think something like that would happen in church."
According to 14-year old Vanessa Lucero, Capener, who was sitting in front of her, “was kind of twitchy, sketchy-looking. He had a tattoo of an upside-down star on his wrist."
"He said, like, 'False preacher!' “Lucero said according to the Times.”I don’t know why.”
Upon reaching the choir he punched choir director Adam Alvarez and then stabbed him multiple times.
"Old ladies were telling him, 'God bless you, forgive yourself,' and he was saying, 'You don’t know about the Masons,'" Lucero said.
“At this point, we’re just trying to deal with it," Father John C. Daniel told the Times. "It sounds like everybody is going to be OK.”
According to Tasia Martinez, a spokeswoman for the Albuquerque police department, Capener “is currently being interviewed and will be facing numerous felony charges.”
"It has been determined that he is not a parishioner," authorities said. "As to the motive regarding the multiple stabbing, this has not yet been determined."
The injuries sustained by the victims, Alvarez, flutist Gerald Madrid, and two other parishioners. were not life threatening, according to USA Today.
