2 people injured in stabbing attack on Virginia church, suspect in custody

Police have said that several people, including a pastor, have been treated for non-life threatening injuries after a knife-wielding attacker stormed into Grace Covenant Church in Chantilly, Virginia.

Fairfax County police said they were alerted to an alleged stabbing at the church at around 3pm on Saturday afternoon.

The attacker is said to have charged at the church's pastor, who was reportedly conducting a bible study group at the time. Police said that Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler, who was present at the event, intervened, helping to subdue the suspect.

Local media reported that Roessler was among those who were hurt as a result of the incident. The Washington Post reported, citing police, that the chief escaped relatively unscathed, without suffering any stab wounds, but was "scratched and perhaps bitten.”

The attack has sparked a massive police response, with witnesses reporting on Twitter that they saw police helicopters and several ambulances rushing towards the scene.

The motive behind the stabbing is so far unknown.

Senior pastor of the church, Brett Fuller, also serves as a chaplain to the Washington Redskins. The team recently announced that it would retire its logo and change its name after coming under heightened scrutiny amid mounting racial tensions gripping the US. 

Christian sites across the country have been increasingly targeted, mostly in vandalism attacks, since the Black Lives Matter protests sprang up in late May. The movement, which began as a peaceful protest against police brutality, has seen activists toppling monuments of historical figures, ranging from Confederate generals to former US presidents.

Last Wednesday, a Catholic church in Connecticut was defaced with anarchist and satanic symbols, while the day prior a statue of Jesus was found decapitated in the courtyard of a Catholic church in Florida, in what the Archdiocese of Miami said was mostly likely a “hate crime.”

While the Black Lives Matter movement has mostly been focused on tearing down statues of figures who in some way contributed to slavery, some radical elements within the group, such as racial activist Shaun King, has argued that murals, statues and other depictions of Jesus as a white European should be done away with as well.

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