Mob who stormed Cities Church told kids their parents were 'Nazis' who were 'going to burn in Hell': affidavit
HSI agent recalls 'children crying ... people singing and praying' as BLM-affiliated group stormed church
Quick Summary
- Anti-ICE activists who disrupted the City Church church service, shouted at children, told them their parents were 'Nazis' who were 'going to burn in Hell.'
- Affidavit details that agitators verbally abused women and children during the incident.
- Three individuals face charges under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for their actions.
A group of leftist agitators that disrupted a Sunday service at a Minnesota church to protest a pastor’s involvement with nationwide deportations of illegal immigrants told children their parents were “Nazis” who were “going to Hell,” according to court documents.
An affidavit filed Jan. 20 by a special agent with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), alleges protesters at Cities Church were screaming and verbally abusing women and young children, including telling children their parents were “Nazis” who were “going to burn in Hell.”
Last Thursday, Nekima Levy Armstrong, William Kelly and Chauntyll Louisa Allen were charged under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act of 1994, which prohibits "intentionally injuring, intimidating, or interfering with ... [anyone] seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship."
All three were released from custody the following day.
According to the affidavit, the trio were part of as many as 40 protesters who were “working together in a coordinated manner” when they “disrupted the religious service and intimidated, harassed, oppressed, and terrorized the parishioners, including young children, and caused the service to be cut short.”
One woman was injured after falling as parishioners fled the church, according to authorities.
Investigators say the agitators targeted the church “based on their belief” that one of the church’s pastors is a federal immigration officer, who is identified in the document as “Victim 1.”
Prior to what authorities say was “their assault” at Cities Church, the group “met together in the parking lot of a nearby shopping center and made plans for their actions inside the church.” Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and activist, told investigators the church riot was part of a “clandestine operation” known as “Operation Pullup,” which, according to the affidavit, involved activists who “show up somewhere that is a key location” and “disrupt business as usual.”
Citing interviews with eyewitnesses, the affidavit filed by HSI Special Agent Timothy Gerber details reports from unidentified members of Cities Church who said when the protesters stormed into the church, they attempted to “retrieve their children from the childcare area located downstairs, but the agitators were blocking the stairs, and the parents were unable to get to their children.”
One victim told investigators that one agitator in particular was “threatening, aggressive and intimidating” toward members of the church: “This agitator was screaming and getting in people’s faces, to include women and young children. This agitator continued to scream in the faces of young children while they were crying.”
Calling the church riot “surreal,” a second victim told investigators they recalled “people shouting and running, children crying, as well as people singing and praying” while the agitators demanded the removal of one of the church’s pastors, who also serves as the acting director of the ICE St. Paul field office.
The victim also told authorities Kelly was “screaming ‘Nazi’ in people’s faces” and telling children: “Do you know your parents are Nazis? They’re going to burn in Hell.”
Kelly was later seen on video haranguing churchgoers and vulgarly mocking them as "fake Christians."
In video footage of the incident, the Rev. Jonathan Parnell, lead pastor of Cities Church, was confronted by former CNN reporter Don Lemon, who interrogated Parnell at his pulpit about the U.S. Constitution while the pastor calmly asked him and the others to leave the building so he could "take care of my church and my family."
Last Friday, a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an emergency petition from the DOJ seeking to arrest Lemon and four others, upholding an earlier lower court ruling.
Circuit Judge L. Steven Grasz, a Trump appointee, authored a brief concurring opinion stating that “the government has failed to establish that it has no other adequate means of obtaining the requested relief.”
Lemon and his producer were given advance notice of the Cities Church protest, with Lemon, who stated he was attending as a journalist, was later seen defending the demonstrators' actions. Lemon also handed out hot coffee and donuts to the protesters before storming the church.
