Sacramento church where father killed his children kept doors open to neighborhood
A business meeting was just a week away. A scan of its website shows memories of last year’s children’s Bible camp with its charge to answer God’s call. A virtual conference for the church’s Mandarin-speaking parishioners was a few days ago.
The work at The Church in Sacramento hinted that like many of us, the Wyda Way faithful were still navigating the pandemic separated via virtual meetings on computer screens.
But late on Monday afternoon, the neighborhood church, neutral ground for a troubled family, became the site of unspeakable horror. Five dead. A 39-year-old father, at the church to meet his three girls, 9, 10 and 13, on a supervised visit turned a gun on them, their chaperone, then himself. The girls’ mother was out of town, but had a restraining order against their father. That the temporary restraining order would have barred him from having a gun didn’t matter.
A church employee, working upstairs, heard the gunshots and called 911.
Emergency dispatch recordings detailed the unthinkable: “There’s a man with a gun in the church, shooting.”
Attempts to reach church officials were unsuccessful, but a church member Tuesday said word on the tragedy would come soon.
“Our elders at the church will put out a statement soon. That’s all we can say at this time.”
The church wasn’t closed to its neighborhood.
For nearly 50 years, the doors here have been open on this street of apartments and single-family homes squeezed between Arden and Ethan ways. The Church in Sacramento is nondenominational, its services reflecting its neighborhood, in English, Spanish and Chinese.
Sandi Davis lives nearby. She said the church helps a lot of people in this Arden Arcade neighborhood, and came to her aid when tragedy struck.
Davis lost her husband two years ago when he was killed in a hit-and-run collision. She remembered how the church’s pastor made sure members of the congregation brought her food as she struggled with grief. The pastor leaves food on a mailbox outside, a meal for anyone who might be hungry, Davis said.
This story was originally published March 1, 2022 at 11:12 AM.
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