Authorities have arrested a man who they say was minutes away from carrying out a mass shooting at a church in Northern Virginia on Sunday morning.

Investigators said they were able to stop the potential massacre at Park Valley Church in Haymarket thanks to someone who saw troubling posts on Instagram and called police

Authorities arrested a man who they say was minutes away from carrying out a mass shooting at a church in Northern Virginia on Sunday morning.

Rui Jiang, 35, was taken into custody with a loaded gun and extra ammo at Park Valley Church in Haymarket. Authorities said he was on a mission to kill.

“This was a thwarted diabolical plot to kill churchgoers in Haymarket, Virginia … and local law enforcement stopped it,” Chief Kevin Davis of the Fairfax County Police Department said.

“Minutes. Minutes. The congregation was making their way into the church. He was in the vestibule of the church about to enter,” Davis said. “So, minutes or seconds away.”

  • Bleeping Lobster@lemmy.worldEnglish
    31110·
    1 year ago

    “Quite frankly, we’ve just been thanking God. You know, God’s been so good to us, and he protected us,

    Never fails to amaze me how someone can completely disregard the hard work and sacrifice of other human beings and instead praise an imaginary skyguy.

    • Nepenthe@kbin.social
      561·
      1 year ago

      Since I feel the sudden urge to vent, I’ve never forgotten staying at this one homeless shelter several years ago.

      We found out much later after the place was shut down that they’d actually been receiving more than adequate donations the entire time, but the staff was just taking it all home with them and telling us that there was no food to give. They could do one or sometimes two meals, but never much, never more, and not dependably from day to. They had none.

      So obviously we believed them and since this was just…the position we were in, I was taking the money I was technically required by agreement to save for a place and using it to buy food for myself and anywhere from 1 to 4 of the other residents.

      One of them was Gabriel, who came in with the clothes on his back and a guitar. Gabriel was religious, but one of the painfully few who put the kindness part first and he was very sweet and tended to be walked on for it and to become depressed for being taken advantage of.

      When he took his guitar around looking for gigs, I went with him for moral support. When one of those was a church, I sat in with the flock even though the related trauma makes my skin crawl. When winter drew close, I bought him what I still think was a pretty snazzy jacket.

      I split a meal almost daily for months, because I’m not going to see anyone hungry when I can afford it, even though none of us could really afford it and doing so was imperiling my future. When he found out the fiance he doted on was banging his best friend while he himself was homeless, guess who was there to cry on immediately.

      I don’t regret any of those, to be very clear. I’d grudgingly do it again, because people matter more. But to think to check up on him some years after we parted and find him thanking god for looking after him during that time was a direct slap in the face. Over a decade later, it still stings.

      Of course it would be god. Looking after each other like sentient, suffering beings, that’s god’s doing, personally stepping in to work his mysterious ways. I only take the blame for the bad shit.

      • fiat_lux@kbin.social
        16·
        1 year ago

        As a total stranger, thankyou for looking after Gabriel, even after being so mistreated yourself. You clearly have a lot of compassion and kindness to offer the world, even if it’s not always respected by its recipients (although it sounds like Gabriel may not have had the skills or ability to fully comprehend it). I hope you’re in a much better place and able to extend your kindness even further and without neglecting your own needs in the process.

      • Bleeping Lobster@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        1 year ago

        Wow. I can see how that would’ve stung. It just feels so irrational! And, there’s no need for them to drop their god schtick when acknowledging someone’s effort. He could’ve just as easily have said “I thank god for putting people who cared around me”

      • loutr@sh.itjust.works
        21·
        1 year ago

        Exactly, if God prevented this attack, it means he wanted the successful ones to take place. He really works in mysterious ways…

        • RogueBanana@lemmy.zip
          1·
          1 year ago

          Dramas get boring when nothing bad happens. Hes just making our lives a bit interesting and sometimes end it all.

        • Meowoem@sh.itjust.works
          22·
          1 year ago

          But also he would know for sure that heaven exists so the fact he saves some people should be seen as an insult, survive near death a few times? God really doesn’t want to hang out with you

    • AstridWipenaugh@lemmy.world
      331·
      1 year ago

      Man, I know a woman who got COVID bad and got a double lung transplant. Not a word about any of her doctors or other care staff that kept her alive while on a ventilator for 6 month. Not even a mention once. But it was constant “look at the power of prayer” and “thank the good lord for my recovery” and shit like that.

      • CaptFeather@lemm.ee
        161·
        1 year ago

        Which is hilarious considering how many “good Christians” died for refusing the vaccine. Confirmation bias in action!

    • Tedesche@lemmy.worldEnglish
      331·
      1 year ago

      It’s a mistake to dismiss religious people as stupid, but they really make it hard not to sometimes.

      • Saneless@lemmy.world
        15·
        1 year ago

        Well, if he’s consistent with his behavior in the Bible, it’s not that he failed to protect her. He killed her himself

        • Delusional@lemmy.world
          7·
          1 year ago

          And if all those people were shot up, you can be damn sure they wouldn’t be saying it’s thanks to God. Mass of idiots.

    • Furbag@lemmy.world
      241·
      1 year ago

      God, when he fails to prevent all the other mass shootings that happened in places of worship:

      “Lol that was part of my plan, too.”

    • Nougat@kbin.social
      213·
      1 year ago

      Cops should have just said, “Oh, it’s at a church? God’s got it handled,” and went back to speed traps.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      163·
      1 year ago

      I mean, it is a church. I think it’s stupid, but it’s not like it’s a car dealership. What do you think they’re going to say?

    • cricket97@lemmy.world
      12·
      1 year ago

      They did thank everyone involved, the news didn’t report on it. Hope you feel stupid for saying that.

    • be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social
      79·
      1 year ago

      Police don’t have a particularly good track record at prevention; they are rather famous for showing up after the crime has happened. I think giving crediting a higher power for the miracle that they proactively stopped a shooter before the shooting started kinda fits.

      I also think it’s reasonable that folks who believe in a deity that theoretically protects them would thank that deity when they feel protected. I somehow doubt the cops on scene lacked for any expression of thanks because everyone was too busy praying.

  • Phanatik@kbin.social
    292·
    1 year ago

    Clearly, Fairfax County Police are doing something the other counties/states should be taking notes on.

  • BigMacHole@lemm.ee
    173·
    1 year ago

    Arresting someone before they’ve had the chance to kill people is AGAINST the Second Amendment! The ONLY time you’re allowed to intervene is AFTER they’ve killed an adult in public or child in school!

  • RadialMonster@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    How does one find random posts on Instagram near them? I only see the people i follow and some ad type posts. Was she following this guy?

  • Cylusthevirus@kbin.social
    3566·
    1 year ago

    Another mass shooting narrowly averted and the only comments here are how stupid religious people are because they happened to thank their God.

    Maybe take a moment to reflect on if this level of tribalism and callousness represents the sort of person you want to be.

      • Cylusthevirus@kbin.social
        11·
        1 year ago

        I fully support a woman’s right to choose without conditions because I believe it’s wrong to require that someone keep someone else alive with their own body. It removes that person’s agency and reduces them to less than a person. We can’t require that people donate organs after they die, so we obviously can’t require that they host another person against their will.

        A person should have more rights and protections than a corpse. Obviously.

      • ClumZy@sh.itjust.works
        26·
        1 year ago

        Don’t assume the poster’s position on that issue… I believe in God and I believe in the right to abortion too, everything is not black or white.

    • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
      23·
      1 year ago

      Lemmy stinks like shit lately. I never subbed to r/atheism for this reason. Then we got Hexbear pretending that pictures of pigs pooping on their balls is activism. This is like every other reddit alternative: after a few months, only the most unsavory people stick around. It’s miserable here.

    • ki77erb@lemmy.world
      1320·
      1 year ago

      Thank you. I’ll get hammered with downvotes but not everyone who believes in God is a moron, or a Republican, or a Trump supporter, or anti-science, or homophobic, or judgmental or any other shit like that. Some of us are pretty normal.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
        53·
        1 year ago

        I never once ever called a person a moron for believing in skydaddy. I know it simply isn’t true because I have worked with plenty of wicked smart skydaddy followers. Also I was one and didn’t get any smarter when I left religion.

        The rest of the stuff yeah sure you are all basically the same. Don’t really care that some of you pretend to be otherwise on the internet. I have seen how you vote and that is all the data I need. Sorry your Pope is having legal issues now.

      • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
        21·
        1 year ago

        I’ll stop saying that when theists stop thinking atheists eat babies or are in league with some sort of archfiend that only exists in their own religion.

        • Cylusthevirus@kbin.social
          1·
          1 year ago

          Excuse me, I know many Atheists who have a pact with a Great Old One. Some of them enjoy the flavor and better spell selection. /s

    • prayer@lemmy.world
      512·
      1 year ago

      It’s like a time machine back to 2014 with all these comments and overused insults.