San Diego Woman Arrested For Threatening To Blow Up Church In Wake Of Sri Lanka Easter Bombings

Churchgoers in San Diego tackled a woman who threatened to blow up a church on Easter Sunday in the wake of the Sri Lanka Bombings.

An Easter mass at the Mt. Everest Academy auditorium was interrupted when Anna Conkey found her way to the front stage. Conkey immediately made it known she was armed with a gun while holding her 10-month-old son in her other arm.

According to witnesses, Conkey was shouting incomprehensibly about "martyrs" and possible "rapture" while making threats about blowing up the church. Some of the parishioners tried talking her down but she responded by pointing the gun at either them or at her baby.

"We were just about to finish up our service and a lady came in with a gun and started talking delusional stuff," said Ronald Farmer, a witness in the church.

Conkey, 31, was also familiar to the church, with several parishioners quickly identifying her. She "had been coming on and off for a little bit of time. And we had been praying for her because we wanted to see her set free," Church leader Brother Ben Wisan told KSWB, a Fox affiliate in San Diego.

NBC 7 noted that she was a former intern and freelance digital producer for their station and had graduated from San Diego State University and served in the U.S Navy.

Conkey kept shouting until a few members of the congregation were able to get to the stage, tackle her and wrestle the gun from her hands.

The incident came in the wake of the Sri Lanka bombings that killed 290 people and injured about 500.

San Diego police arrived very quickly to the scene after being called and immediately took Conkey into custody. Child Welfare Services also took in her baby and 5-year-old daughter, who was at a daycare center, to keep them in protective custody and evaluate them both.

Conkey was booked on charges of making criminal threats and displaying a handgun in a threatening manner.