McDonald's Murder in China: Cult Beat a Woman to Death 'Over Nothing'
A murder at a McDonald's in China has sparked international outrage and concern over the state of affairs in the religious community. The beating was allegedly carried out by members of a group known as the Church of Almighty God.
Last Wednesday, the group of six people, including four from one family, have been arrested over the attack. The 37-year-old victim was beaten to death at a McDonald's after she reportedly refused to give her telephone number to members of the group, which has been banned by Chinese authorities. The attack was captured on surveillance video and shown on China Central Television, leading to national outrage over the actions of the group and the people involved.
According to MarketWatch, the victim was the mother of a 7-year-old boy. Five of the six suspects were arrested on homicide charges. Those involved in the attack include a father, his two daughters, an underage son, and two other women, Xinhua News Agency noted.
"An innocent woman was beaten to death by a group of strangers in broad daylight over nothing," Caijing magazine reported. "The fear the news has caused to the public has gone far beyond what any premeditated, organized crime would have created. It will be hard for ordinary people to feel secure in this country unless this case is solved fairly and publicly, in accordance with the law."
The Church of Almighty God preaches the second coming of a female Jesus and believed that an apocalypse would take place on December 21, 2012. The group is also known as Lightning from the East and was founded in the early 1990s by a man named Zhao Weishan and has steadily grown in size and power. It has been forced to operate underground, given its disdain for the Chinese government and the previous clashes between the two organizations.
Chinese officials conducted a sweep before December 21, 2012, hoping to quell some of the fanaticism about the supposed impending apocalypse. Now residents are calling for justice to be swift and fair after the murder of an innocent woman.
