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A Virginia man was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Wednesday over his attempt to carry out a mass shooting at a church.
Rui Jiang, 36, was convicted in March for his 2023 plot to gun down congregants at the Park Valley Church in Haymarket, Virginia.
Jiang had posted online threats about the church in September 2023 about his desire to kill congregants.
“Blood will be on your hands,” one of the messages on Instagram read, according to court records. A call from a concerned citizen the following morning sparked a manhunt to find Jiang.
Officers responded to Jiang’s residence and found a manifesto in which he wrote about his desire to kill men at the church.
“I am here [to] deny the love [sic] lives blessed by God to these lucky men, by taking out these men,” it read in part, according to the Justice Department. “To the families of those men about to be slain — I am sorry for what I have done and about to do.”
Despite police finding the manifesto, they had just missed Jiang: He’d already gone to Park Valley Church to carry out his attack.
Church staff, including an off-duty officer, spotted Jiang at the church acting suspiciously during Sunday services. Pastor Barry White told local station WTOP at the time that church security was tipped off by Jiang’s all-black clothing and sunglasses amid the crowd of roughly 1,000 people.
“It was a rainy day; you didn’t really need to wear sunglasses, and the fact that he was wearing them and wearing them inside the building ... our guys flagged that right off the bat,” White told the station.
When Fairfax County Police apprehended Jiang at the church, he was armed with a semiautomatic handgun, two magazines of ammunition, and two knives, according to the Justice Department More ammo, knives, and a canister of bear spray were also found in his vehicle.
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In a statement following the sentencing, Erik S. Siebert, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said Jiang sought to “violate” the freedom to worship.
“The freedom to worship without fear is one of the bedrock principles of our Nation,” Siebert said. “Rui Jiang set out to violate that principle by entering a church during a religious service armed with the intent to murder innocent parishioners. This unspeakable act, only thwarted by brave law enforcement officers and civilians, has no place in our Republic and will always be a priority of my office.”
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