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.

  • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    We don’t.

    We’re constantly on edge.

    Every single message I get from my kids school during the day, I hope it’s not a dreaded “school shooting” warning.

    Even shit like taking my kids to the park, I have to look around to ensure it’s fine. While parents look at me wondering if I’m safe or not.

    It’s a shit show.

    • overload@sopuli.xyz
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      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
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        6 months ago

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

        Not everyone in Australia watches Sky News

        • overload@sopuli.xyz
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          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)