San Diego - A woman who walked into an Easter service in
San Diego carrying a baby with her left arm and waving a gun with her
right was tackled by parishioners after threatening to blow up the
church, police and witnesses said.
The sermon in the Californian city was just wrapping up when the
armed woman appeared on the church stage at about noon, said Brother
Ben Wisan, the founding pastor of Church TsidKenu. The church holds
its services at Mount Everest Academy, a school in the Clairemont
neighbourhood.
Wisan told the congregation of about 100 to get outside and "start
praying," but several church members stayed to try and talk to the
woman, he said.
"We're a big Holy Spirit church, so the peace of God was over the
whole church," he told a reporter with OnScene TV.
David Miller, a Navy man, said he was one of several people who
stayed inside to try and defuse the situation safely. Miller told
OnScene TV the woman was making "crazy comments" about teaching
people how to suffer and that there was a need for people to become
martyrs.
He said as the church members started to slowly approach her, she
pointed her gun at several parishioners and then her own baby,
telling them not to come any closer.
That's when the group, including Miller, tackled the woman, first
getting the child to safety and then wresting the gun from her hand,
he said.
When police arrived minutes later, the woman tried to escape, Miller
said. One officer tackled her through a row of chairs and she was
taken into custody. She was later identified as Anna Conkey, 31, and
was booked into jail on suspicion of making criminal threats and
displaying a handgun in a threatening manner.
No one was injured during the incident. Because Conkey threatened to
blow up the building where the church held its service, officers with
bomb detection canines swept the facility and her vehicle. Nothing
dangerous was located.
Wisan, the pastor, said investigators later told him Conkey's gun
wasn't loaded. He said church members knew the woman and that she had
attended services in the past. San Diego police Lt Christian Sharp
said officers are investigating whether Conkey was involved in an
incident at the same church about a week ago.
"It sounds like there might be some mental illness issues that we're
looking into," Sharp told OnScene TV.
The woman's 10-month-old baby was taken into protective custody, the
lieutenant said. Police also located a second child, a 5-year-old
daughter, healthy and unharmed, police said. Both were taken to the
Polinsky Children's Center, a 24-hour facility that houses children
who must be separated from their family.
According to a personal blog and social media profiles, Conkey was a
Navy veteran who studied English and journalism at San Diego State
University. She had worked as a digital media producer for NBC7 San
Diego, as a news production assistant at KPBS, and had commentaries
published in The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Conkey often shared her perspective in a personal blog and YouTube
channel.
Although her blog appeared to begin as a space to share information
about a poetry project inspired by reporting she had done on sex
trafficking in San Diego, it quickly grew decidedly religious, and
began referencing her detailed dreams and visions.
Church TsidKenu was first mentioned in a November 2018 post about
deliverance ministry, which is the act of cleansing a person of
demons.
Videos posted to her YouTube channel were also overtly religious. In
some, she claimed to be a prophet. The second to last video appears
to reference a disagreement she had at her church. She said she was
expecting to speak, but when she suggested she knew more than church
leaders, she was asked to leave.
Conkey posted her last video hours before showing up at the church on
Sunday. In it, she claims that Jesus and Satan are one and that she
was sent to reveal the truth to the masses.
"If God decides to blow your minds by appearing as someone very
unexpected and doing very unexpected things and saying crazy, crazy
stuff, maybe you should listen," she said.
The threat occurred hours after explosions hit Sri Lankan churches
and hotels on Easter Sunday in a coordinated attack that killed
hundreds of people. On Saturday night, San Diego police Chief Dave
Nisleit said on Twitter that extra officers would be patrolling
houses of worship as a precaution.