Children were inside St. Mary Magdalen in Abbeville, Louisiana, waiting to take their first Holy Communion, the church said.

Children were inside St. Mary Magdalen in Abbeville, Louisiana, waiting to take their first Holy Communion, the church said.

Churchgoers thwarted a teenager armed with a rifle from entering a Louisiana church full of children Saturday in a service that was being livestreamed, authorities said.

Police were called to St. Mary Magdalen Church in Abbeville, 20 miles south of Lafayette, at 10:35 a.m. when the 16-year-old suspect tried to get in via the back door.

Around 60 children were inside the Catholic church at the time waiting to take their first Holy Communion, the church said.

…

The suspect was arrested and later charged with terrorizing the church and two counts of possession of a firearm by a juvenile. Witnesses told KADN of Lafayette that he was dressed all in black and armed with the rifle.

  • overload
    51·
    6 months ago

    That’s horrible to hear. We get on edge about the constant military/economic threat of China here in Australia, but that’s much more an existential threat than immediate one. The idea that some random citizen could end 100 peoples lives in minutes is terrifying.

    We have people over here that I’m sure would be a school shooter situation if we had guns.

    • jaek@lemmy.world
      32·
      6 months ago

      We get on edge about the constant military/economic threat of China

      Not everyone in Australia watches Sky News

      • overload
        5·
        6 months ago

        We have a strong economic dependancy on China for trade, and a military dependency on the USA for defence. What could possibly go wrong? I’m not a sky news watcher, but I’ll admit I have family that are very cautious about geopolitics (also not sky news watchers)