Lawrence Capener Stabs 4 People In New Mexico Church While Yelling 'Fake Preacher'

As a Sunday church service at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico was drawing to close and the choir was singing its closing hymn a man rushed over and stabbed four choir members after yelling 'Fake Preacher!'

Lawrence Capener, 24, jumped over several pews around noon on Sunday and proceeded to the choir area where he began the attack, said police spokesman, Robert Gibbs, according to Inquirer News.

Vanessa Lucero, a 14-year-old member of the congregation, said that she had been sitting right behind the man and that he was "kind of twitchy" and "sketchy looking," and that he had a tattoo of an upside-down star on his wrist, according to the LA Times.  "He said, like, 'False preacher!'  I don't know why," she said.

"I looked up and I saw a young man with a very scary look in his eyes-fury, anger, hatred.  He had a knife and was attacking our soloist, and our flutist tried to protect him and got stabbed also," said choir member, Brenda Baca King, according to International Business Times.

Another stabbing victim was Gerald Madrid, the choir flutist, according to IBT.  Madrid said that Capener stabbed him four times in the back and once in the neck with his knife.  "I just instinctively dropped my flute and charged the guy and I got him into a bear hug and pinned him against the wall but he was much taller than I am.  I think he was trying to stab me more, but this time I was taking him down," he said.

The injuries incurred by the four church members were not life threatening, according to Inquirer News and all of them were taken to hospitals to be treated.

Authorities reported that Caperner was subdued by several member of the church before police arrived on the scene, according to IBT.

"The scene was chaotic when officers arrived and it was quickly ascertained that numerous parishioners essentially jumped on the male offender and held him down until officers arrived," said police spokesperson, Tasia Martineza, according to NBC News.

Officials have Capener in custody and say that they have determined that he was not a member of the church, however, they have not determined his motivation behind the attack, according to NBC.  Police say that he will face numerous felony charges.

Lucero told the LA Times that after the suspect was handcuffed, "old ladies were telling him, 'God bless you, forgive yourself,' and he was saying, 'You don't know about the Masons.'"

"At this point, we're just trying to deal with it.  It sounds like everybody is going to be OK," Father John C. Daniel told the LA Times in a brief telephone interview.