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.”
“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.
Same imaginary skygod who put them in harms way to begin with. Never did understand.
No, no: that’s the other skyguy. We’re like the kids in a bitter divorce, constantly bounced between a good parent and a bad parent, with no actual agency. Except to thank good skyguy, otherwise they might not protect us from bad skyguy next time.
Skyguy whims sometimes feel arbitrary and capricious, but there’s divine or diabolical intent, which means it’s way better than being lost to the randomness of chaotic but determinate natural forces. How terrifying would the world be if stuff just happened for no reason?
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I think you mean undergroundguy
Um…
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.
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.
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”
Seriously. Not alert citizens. Not technology. Not good policework. Dog.
Unreal these morons.
Dog.
Woof.
Not the person you’re responding to, but I’d thank any given dog before I thanked any given god, so why not
Dogs like being praised and talking to imaginary friends is a sign of mental illness so I agree.
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I grew up in a religious household and the more it was explained to me the less sense it made.
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The fact police received a report and acted in a timely manner to that report is actually pretty remarkable. Whether it’s divine intervention or statistical inevitability doesn’t really matter.
It’s miraculous bit I wouldn’t call it a miracle. Call the newspaper, not the Vatican.
Of course it matters! You don’t think it matters whether someone believes that this stemmed from real world actions or from magic???
Weird how they never thank god for the successful attacks.
Exactly, if God prevented this attack, it means he wanted the successful ones to take place. He really works in mysterious ways…
Dramas get boring when nothing bad happens. Hes just making our lives a bit interesting and sometimes end it all.
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
They didn’t pray hard enough.
It’s a mistake to dismiss religious people as stupid, but they really make it hard not to sometimes.
That’s an odd way to spell “natural reflex”, but it’s close.
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Because they’re not stupid; or at least, that’s not why they’re religious. Sadly, religious indoctrination can affect even brilliant minds.
Yep I can’t stand this. What about the little girl who dies of cancer? God didn’t feel like protecting her?
Fuck off
Well, if he’s consistent with his behavior in the Bible, it’s not that he failed to protect her. He killed her himself
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.
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.
Which is hilarious considering how many “good Christians” died for refusing the vaccine. Confirmation bias in action!
Even when I was a theist I still made a point of thanking doctors and nurses. Everyone can get credit.
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.”
“That’s not a plan! You’re just a jerk!” -Jerry
I inka dinka binka bonka understood this reference.
“Why does God’s plan involve so many priests molesting alter boys?”
And needing 10% of my money?
And what does God need with a starship?
Cops should have just said, “Oh, it’s at a church? God’s got it handled,” and went back to speed traps.
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?
Repoter: So, the police arrested a gunman moments away from shooting up your dealership. What are your thoughts?
Dealer: It was wild. Absolutely crazy… Almost as crazy as ThEse CraZy deAls We’vE GoT RigHt nOW. JUst cHeCk Out ThE PriCe oN ThiS '88 MaliBu. It’S CrAaaaZy!
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Fair point!
In his actual statement he thanked the police and everyone involved. NBC Washington felt that only the snippet thanking God was worth reporting.
Thanks for clarifying
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Snips knew better than to praise Skyguy… eventually
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.
They did thank everyone involved, the news didn’t report on it. Hope you feel stupid for saying that.
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Clearly, Fairfax County Police are doing something the other counties/states should be taking notes on.
Getting random tips from concerned citizens with details.
And then responding to those tips in an appropriate and timely manner.
The audacity!
Just doing the job?
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Paying way more than the vast majority of other police agencies, this attracting top talent who can actually do the job.
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!
Honest what is that? Attempted murder. Do they give the Nobel Prize for Attempted Chemistry?
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?
A true miracle
Nice, they can thwart a shooting at a church but not at a school.
What is the point of your comment?
Prince William County (where the church was) and Fairfax County (where the guy lived) police haven’t really had to deal with a school shooting incident, but have intervened when students were reportedly bringing guns to schools.
If anything, earlier this year, Fairfax County Police sent officers to monitor a school when a threat was found in the bathroom of a school and earlier this month, Prince William County Police were monitoring a school after a threat was called in.
Good for Fairfax County, but your argument is a logical fallacy.
Nice, it’s been a while since I saw the classic fallacy fallacy in the wild.
This isn’t even that, as it requires a fallacy to have been made in the first place, but I can’t find any in the parent comment.
So it’s a fictitious fallacy
Fallacy^3
Can we go deeper?
How so? The original commenter was suggesting that churches get protection while schools do not. Their assertion is simply incorrect.
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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.
What’s a tankie for cultists called?
Fundamentalist
A thankie?
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Nah religion is harmful i’ma shame them
Nobody’s talking about mental health, just their effect on society
How many wars have been fought because of someone’s god? How many people have been murdered because they worshiped the same god in a different way? How many children have been abused because the adults thought they were following their god’s will? Religion is harmful.
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You guys really harp on that one gold nugget found in a pile of shit. Wow you get slightly lower alcoholism rates if you believe in skydaddy. Big freaken deal. It doesn’t excuse or makeup for anything.
I have and it does. Now restore Roe v Wade
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.
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.
Sure.
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.
I mean … what did they think the result of those low effort posts would be, exactly? I’ve been on the Internet long enough to see far, FAR worse than that. All it does is clutter up a thread.
OTOH, threads like these are great for my blocklist. Makes it easy to screen out histrionic bigots that can’t differentiate between an Episcopalian or United Methodist with a gay priest who’s worst crime against humanity involves providing housing for folks in their community and some batshit nuts Evangelical White Nationalist.
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.
no that pretty much sums up every openly religious person I know
You must be a pretty terrible Christian, because the Bible is overwhelmingly anti-science and God’s stance on homosexuality couldn’t be any clearer. I don’t think you’re allowed to pick and choose what parts of the Bible to follow 🤔
Christians are a diverse bunch. I’ve seen people claiming the label who do and do not believe the Bible is inerrant or sometimes even inspired. I’ve seen people who claim the label practice rituals that look very similar to what some Wiccans do.
The reality though is that every Christian picks and chooses. People should be held responsible for how they behave, not the labels they claim or the trauma you’ve incurred by people claiming that label.
I understand why so many take issue with right wing American evangelicals who can’t even manage to align with Jesus himself, but the bigotry I’ve seen today is just depressing.
Who cares that the rituals are a bit different? It is still the religion with the highest kill count and the source of worldwide problems. Just within my lifetime Christianity led a crusade into Iraq that killed a million people and sent crises all over the region.
Any person’s opinion of how “good” or “bad” of a Christian I am is meaningless to me. I think and do what I feel is morally right by me.
You arent wrong. Neuroscience has proven that your God believes the same things you believe. Isn’t that amazing? The being that like 14,000,000,000 years ago made the entire universe and has been managing every moment with at least a precision of .000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000044 seconds while managing 2-8 x 1,000,000,000,000 galaxies each containing 1-4 x 100,000,000,000 stars happens to agree with you about masturbation.
Amazing.
You’re allowed to believe whatever you like. I’ve been an atheist since I realized the other kids believed in Noah, but let people keep whatever tiny thing gives them comfort, especially if they do it while expanding the church to accept anyone.
You’re right. Believing in the literal existence of any god or supernatural entity obviously doesn’t imply that the believer is a moron in a general intellectual sense. There are plenty of highly skilled and academically-inclined religious people, including scientists. However, such beliefs do reflect an inability or stubborn unwillingness to align with a scientific worldview, which in turn suggests some form of psychological weakness. I mean, honestly, what would you think of someone who believes in the literal existence of fairies, ghosts, and invisible dragons and organized their world view around those beliefs? You may not actively dislike or discriminate against such people, but you would wonder at their psychological constitution and susceptibility to delusion. And surely you would be worried if they became a majority and started voting for politicians whose goal is to align your society with their invisible magic dragon worship. It’s just so…utterly ridiculous. That’s why atheists use the shorthand moniker “moron” when referring to religious people. We don’t mean that religious people are literally intellectually incapable, just that they hold an inexplicably stupid and inconsistent worldview. The negativity component doesn’t apply to the fairy-believers and dragon-worshippers because they are an unthreatening fringe. Christians and Muslims, however, are large, dangerous, and politically influential groups who have shown a tendency towards forcing their views on others. And a majority of Christians, especially the most vocal ones, do vote for Trump. I don’t hate all individual Christians or Muslims, who can be perfectly nice people, but I really do hate public and especially political religious expression.
I can definitely agree with you that many religious people attempt to force their beliefs on others. Many also use faith for monetary gain or power. It’s a serious problem.
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.
Weird. I’m a moderate liberal who voted for Biden but by all means continue to believe in your stereotypes. I’m also not Catholic and could give two shits about the Pope.
Don’t cut yourself with that edge.
2005 wants their one-liner back.
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.
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
It’s like a time machine back to 2014 with all these comments and overused insults.
If you go back even further you could see the Twin Towers before the faithful crashed planes into them.
I thought 9-11 was about America supporting Israel
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2014? Oh, my sweet summer child.
