8/26/2023 0 Comments Spotted zebra sunday hoursJake Stephens pays his respects outside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on J- two days after a mass shooting left nine dead during a Bible study meeting at the church. Many of the contemporary issues afflicting the country - too many people carrying concealed weapons, domestic disputes that turn violent, people struggling with mental illnesses - are now spilling into Sunday morning worship services, pastors and security officials say. But the security issues facing houses of worship have worsened since then, religious leaders and security officials say.Ĭhurch leaders say they are concerned about another array of threats that have become more common in a post-pandemic America where many people are on edge. The New Life shooting was a transformative event that convinced many churches to add armed security to their Sunday morning worship services. The church has become a frontline for the nation’s social ills It would also foreshadow a disturbing trend that has only worsened in subsequent years: 11 o’clock on Sunday morning is now one of the most dangerous hours of the week in America, pastors and church security officials say.Īnd for religious leaders, this poses a dilemma. What happened next at the New Life Church in December 2007 would change the way many churches approached security. She then stepped from her hiding spot and faced the gunman. He was wearing a bulletproof vest and a backpack, and was cursing aloud as he moved, firing his rifle.Īssam gripped her Beretta and said a silent prayer: “God be with me.” A man was carrying an assault rifle in his left hand and had a thick black glove on his right hand. She peeked out from her hiding spot and spotted the source of the rifle shots. She found a hiding spot near the church church’s main hallway. People were screaming and running.”Īs people fled, Assam reached for a Beretta 92FS 9mm semi-automatic pistol tucked in her jeans and sprinted toward the gunshots. “It was just thundering out really loud, just booming. “I could tell it was the crack of a high-powered rifle,” Assam said. Assam heard a panicky voice shout from the packed crowd in the church lobby, “Get down! He’s got a gun!” A rifle shot then rang out in the parking lot. Her feeling was so strong that she volunteered to work that day, even though she had planned to stay home.Īt 12:55 pm., Assam heard someone in the church lobby say that something weird was going on in the parking lot. Assam had a premonition that the gunman would next target the Colorado Springs church where she volunteered as an unpaid security officer. That morning, a gunman had escaped after killing two people at a missionary training center about 70 miles away. Jeanne Assam had a gut feeling that something terrible was about to happen as she watched parishioners leave a Sunday worship service at a Colorado megachurch one snow-covered December day.
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