Assault at San Francisco Catholic church leads to police pursuit, reported pipe bomb

CNA Staff, Oct 30, 2023 / 15:48 pm

An assault at a San Francisco Catholic church on Sunday led to a police pursuit that reportedly included the possible use of a pipe bomb.

The San Francisco Police Officers Association (SFPOA), a local police union, said on X on Sunday evening that there had been an “assault at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in North Beach.”

“Responding officers encountered a suspect with an improvised device,” the SFPOA said. “A pursuit occurred.” The suspect was subsequently “apprehended by [the San Francisco Police Department] in another county.”

Archdiocesan spokesman Peter Marlow told CNA on Monday that the incident began after an individual received Communion but did not consume the host.

“It was a person that went up to receive Communion at the 5 p.m Mass and then didn’t consume the consecrated host,” Marlow said. “He left without consuming.”

“There was a visiting person [also in attendance] who stood up and confronted the person and told him, ‘You can’t leave the church without consuming the host,’” Marlow said. “And the guy went off and punched him and ran out of the church.” 

“The gentleman who got punched, I was told, was not in serious condition,” Marlow added. “He just took a punch and was treated by the paramedics.”

It was unclear at press time what happened to the Host.

City Supervisor Aaron Peskin told the San Francisco Standard that police said the man “set off a pipe bomb” during the pursuit incident before subsequently igniting a “Molotov cocktail.” There were no serious injuries, Peskin told the outlet.

The SFPOA included in its X post a photograph of an “improvised device” said to have ignited on a city sidewalk or street.

A spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department could not be reached for comment before publication Monday.

Sts. Peter and Paul Church says on its website that it is run by the Salesians of Don Bosco of the Western United States.

The present church structure on Filbert Street was constructed in 1924 after the 1906 earthquake destroyed the original structure, according to the parish’s website.