By Bob Allen
Police in Las Cruces, N.M., evacuated a mall Aug. 6, after a suspicious package was left near the entrance to a Barnes and Noble Bookstore.
Mesilla Valley Mall in Las Cruces was closed for several hours amid heightened alert since explosive devices were detonated last weekend at two of the city’s churches. Police dismantled the device in the mall parking lot. Officials said there was a note attached, but it was not related to Sunday’s twin explosions at Calvary Baptist Church and Holy Cross Catholic Church.
On Monday authorities asked for the public’s help in identifying those responsible for the small explosions that unsettled residents and faith leaders throughout the community.
“Someone out there saw something. Someone out there knew something,” FBI assistant special agent Bryan Finnegan said in comments quoted by the Las Cruces Sun-News. “And if this actor is listening, turn yourself in. Get this over with. We know you’re looking over your shoulder. We know you want to do the right thing and turn yourself in and to confess to this crime. Please do so as quickly as possible.”
Calvary Baptist Church Pastor Kevin Glenn posted updates on Facebook Aug. 5 and Aug. 6 during what he described as “an overwhelming week.”
“There is no doubt Sunday’s incident has brought on a range of fears and concerns,” Glenn observed Wednesday. “A house of worship should be a place of peace; making the act of violence especially troubling for us all.”
Greeted with the bombing on his first day as pastor after moving to New Mexico from a church in Missouri, Glenn said the incident prompted both discussion of what Calvary Baptist Church has done well and what can be done to improve safety on the church campus.
Immediate plans include encouraging members to be vigilant and to look after each other and being proactive about having members on-site with experience in law enforcement. Longer range steps include training opportunities and improvements to the church’s emergency preparedness plans. Eventually Glenn anticipates “implementation of comprehensive safety upgrades to our campus.”
On Thursday Glenn empathized with a man and two women attacked at a theater in Antioch, Tenn., in suburban Nashville. “Oklahoma City, Columbine, Sandy Hook, Aurora, New York City — the list goes on and on, as do the questions,” he lamented.
Nashville police say Vincente David Montano, 29, a transient with a history of mental illness and run-ins with law enforcement, sparked chaos after entering a screening of “Mad Max: Fury Road” wielding a hatchet, what appeared to be a gun and two backpacks.
Montano sprayed three movie patrons with pepper spray and wounded one with the hatchet before engaging police, who fired about 100 shots to kill him. Later they discovered the firearm was a toy that fires plastic pellets and the backpack a “hoax device” intended to look like a bomb. Authorities said Montano had a lighter, lighter fluid and canister of propane that could have been elements of an explosive device.
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