Man arrested outside cathedral, charged with assault

Friday, May. 31, 2024

SALT LAKE CITY — Just as the 11 a.m. Sunday Mass in the Cathedral of the Madeleine got under way on May 26, Father Martin Diaz noted that “some kind of commotion” was occurring in the back. He stopped the Mass and asked participants to remain in their seats because recently there had been two medical emergencies during services at the cathedral.

Because of those situations, “I think I was on hyper alert to just ask people to sit down,” said Fr. Diaz, the cathedral rector. However, after a few moments, “Mass continued as normal.”

Afterward, he said, he learned that Willie Green, the cathedral sexton, twice asked a man who was sitting on the floor with his feet in the aisle to sit a pew. The man stood up and swung a bamboo cane at Green, who ducked, and the cane hit another cathedral employee in the forehead without much force, Fr. Diaz said.

At that point, several parishioners escorted the man outside and restrained him until the police arrived and arrested him, Fr. Diaz said, adding, “The video outside shows eight to 10 men surrounding the man. The police arrived rather quickly.”

According to the Affidavit of Probable Cause from the Salt Lake City Police Department, the suspect “struck two victims with a bamboo wooden sword. He then struck a third victim with his fists, knocking the victim’s glasses off and breaking them. … There is no known motive and [the suspect] is not known at all by the victims involved in this case.”

The suspect resisted arrest, according to the affidavit, which lists among the charges aggravated assault and interfering with a peace officer.

Fr. Diaz said there was no damage to the cathedral and no one reported any injury to him. He said he has been at the cathedral for 11 years “and this is the first time that anything like this … has ever happened.”