{"id":134422,"date":"2020-12-16T01:56:49","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T22:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/st-john-the-divine-officials-forgive-gunman-who-opened-fire\/"},"modified":"2020-12-16T01:56:49","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T22:56:49","slug":"st-john-the-divine-officials-forgive-gunman-who-opened-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/st-john-the-divine-officials-forgive-gunman-who-opened-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"#St. John the Divine officials forgive gunman who opened fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#St. John the Divine officials forgive gunman who opened fire<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

Officials at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine said they forgive the disturbed gunman who opened fire at a Christmas carol performance on the church steps, saying they feel only sympathy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly feel I can forgive him,\u201d the Rev. Clifton Daniel, dean of the historic Morningside Heights church, said Tuesday. \u201cThings like this should not happ<\/a>en but I have no anger for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only have sympathy for his family and I feel for the pain and confusion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Luis Vasquez, 52, was shot dead by police after he began firing off two handguns atop the steps of the historic cathedral around 3:45 p.m. Sunday.<\/p>\n

A native of the Dominican Republic, Vasquez had been living in the Bronx with his mother before he went off on the caught-on-video rampage.<\/p>\n

He fired off several rounds before two police officers and an off-duty cop working security in the area returned fire, striking Vasquez in the head.<\/p>\n

No one else was injured in the exchange. <\/p>\n

Daniel, 73, said he initially thought the gunshots were fireworks.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvil is a reality in the world and the church is not immune to that evil,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

He said that amid the mayhem he came upon a man who had fallen and hit his head in the chaos \u2014 and pulled the man to safety with the help of the church security chief.<\/p>\n

Keith Hinkson, St. John\u2019s longtime head of security, said his crew began pulling people to safety as Vasquez fired off shots and yelled, \u201ckill me\u201d and \u201cshoot me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a typical stampede,\u201d Hinkson said. \u201cMost people just took cover. Some people went inside the church and my guys went inside to lock the door.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say how I would feel if someone had actually gotten injured or killed,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I only feel sympathy for his family\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
REUTERS\/Jeenah Moon\/File Photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vasquez had a criminal record dating to 1990, when he was charged with attempted murder for firing at police and an unidentified woman, records show.<\/p>\n

State correction officials said he was released to immigration custody in 1994 after pleading the case down to a weapons possession charge.<\/p>\n

He was rearrested in 2007 and again released to immigration authorities.<\/p>\n

He was in the US on a travel<\/a> visa that expired the day of the St. John the Divine incident, sources said. <\/p>\n

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immedia<\/a>tely respond to a request for details on Vasquez\u2019s case.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

For forums sites go to Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

If you want to read more News<\/a> articles, you can visit our News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#St. John the Divine officials forgive gunman who opened fire” Officials at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine said they forgive the disturbed gunman who opened fire at a Christmas carol performance on the church steps, saying they feel only sympathy. \u201cI certainly feel I can forgive him,\u201d the Rev. Clifton Daniel, dean of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":134423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/12\/church-shooter.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[85440,5562,75344,7342],"class_list":["post-134422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-12-15-20","tag-churches","tag-morningside-heights","tag-shootings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}