4 Stabbed At New Mexico Church Service

A Sunday church service in Albuquerque, New Mexico was interrupted this weekend when a man stabbed 4 people at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church.

24-year-old Lawrence Capner attacked the church choir group with a knife, stabbing 4 people. The incident happened Sunday morning at 11:50am.  Capner reportedly jumped pews and ran screaming "fake preacher" toward the choir members.

KOAT spoke with 1 of the 4 people stabbed at the church, 52-year-old Gerald Madrid - the choir flutist.

"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," Madrid said. "I think he was trying to stab me more, but this time I was taking him down."

Madrid and three other people were injured in the stabbing. KOAT says one of the stabbing victims was critically wounded.

Other parishioners spoke with the L.A Times. One witness said, "While that was going on, people were just panicking. It was scary you wouldn't think something like that would happen in church."

A witness that was sitting near the man who stabbed 4 people at the church said Capner was "was kind of twitchy, sketchy looking. He had a tattoo of an upside-down star on his wrist."

Lawrence Capner was taken into custody on Sunday and faces battery charges. According to IBT.com Tasia Martinez of the Albuquerque Police Department said the motive for the stabbing is still unknown.