Woman holding a baby and waving a gun threatened to blow up California church, police say
A woman was arrested Sunday after allegedly threatening to blow up a church in San Diego while holding a baby and waving a gun, police said.
Anna Conkey, 31, carried her 10-month-old baby and a handgun into Mt. Everest Academy, where the nondenominational Tsidkenu Church leases space for services, the San Diego Police Department said Sunday.
Conkey got on stage and threatened to blow up the church while waving the weapon, police said, just hours after a string of bombs went off at churches in Sri Lanka during Easter services, killing at least 290 people.
"After she started pointing the gun at the baby, one of the older gentlemen grabbed it from her and then me and a couple of other men tackled her," David Michael Miller, a Navy service member who was attending services, told KABC. "We got the baby away from her. A few minutes after that, the cops came in.”
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Police recovered the handgun, which was not loaded, and conducted a sweep of the area using a bomb-sniffing dog. Nothing was found and the area was determined to be safe, authorities said.
Police later found Conkey’s 5-year-old daughter “healthy and unhurt,” and both children were taken into protective custody.
Five minutes before the incident, an account under Conkey’s name sent an email to NBC 7, where she previously worked as an intern and freelance digital producer, according to the station.
"There’s a woman claiming to be the Messiah, saying she was sent to blow up the foundation of the Church — she’s got a gun and a child is involved. The address is 4350 Mount Everest Blvd San Diego, CA 92117. There are about 70 people in the auditorium of the school where the church service is held,” the email read.
Conkey was booked into county jail on several charges including child cruelty, two counts of assaulting a person with a firearm, resisting arrest, making a false bomb threat, having a firearm at a school and disturbing a religious meeting.
She is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday, according to jail records.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Woman holding a baby and waving a gun threatened to blow up California church, police say
