A South Carolina pastor was stabbed with a pair of small scissors on the campus of his church as he sought to save a 61-year-old stranger nearby who was being attacked. He urged prayers for the suspect, calling him “a very disturbed, mentally ill, and spiritually oppressed person.”
The Rev. Marcus Kaiser, the rector of Church of the Holy Comforter in Sumter, said he “was able to avoid most of the blows, and the only injuries were a couple scrapes to my right arm and one somewhat deep puncture just above my right wrist,” according to a statement he wrote to his congregation.
Police apprehended the 31-year-old suspect, a man who identified as transgender and gave the name Zendaya Fox-Smith. Police were able to identify the suspect through fingerprint records and charged him with “first-degree assault and battery, third-degree assault and battery, malicious injury to personal property and providing false information to police,” The Sumter Item reported.
“The worst part was the 6 or 7 hours spent in the emergency room to get a tetanus shot, some antibiotics, and some bandages,” Kaiser said. “We both are going to be fine, and the assailant is in custody.”
He further clarified, “Given the circumstances, I don’t believe this has any bearing on your safety at church, but rather speaks to a much deeper mental health and perhaps substance abuse problem in our community at large.”
Describing the attack, the rector said he witnessed someone attacking an elderly man who was walking a dog by the church campus, and as he tried to defend the victim, the suspect took out a small pair of metal scissors and attacked Kaiser.
The rector said the incident has its upsides.
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SOURCE: Christian Post, Anugrah Kumar
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