{"id":183952,"date":"2026-02-19T03:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/183952\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T03:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:12:08","slug":"off-duty-sacramento-detective-stops-man-with-loaded-handgun-from-entering-church-on-ash-wednesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/183952\/","title":{"rendered":"Off-duty Sacramento detective stops man with loaded handgun from entering church on Ash Wednesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

A person with a gun was detained while trying to get inside St. Mary’s Church in East Sacramento on Ash Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, no shots were fired, nothing escalated, and the 20-year-old man was disarmed thanks to the keen eye of an off-duty Sacramento detective.<\/p>\n

“When I first saw the gun in his hand,… I knew it was not his because of the way he was holding it,” said church member Marissa Palombi, who had just attended a service at the church before everything unfolded.<\/p>\n

What she was witnessing was the detective holding the gun as he called in backup.<\/p>\n

“I am just glad all the kids are safe,” Palombi said. “It’s wild to think what could have happened if they didn’t have him out there.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Sacramento Police Department said the detective, who was acting as a parent observer at the time, noticed a suspicious man who was trying to enter the church during the 9:30 a.m. service on Ash Wednesday. During their conversation, he located a loaded handgun on him, detained him and called in backup.<\/p>\n

“I saw them start to search that car, which is apparently his car,” Palombi said as she pointed to a car that was parked near the school.<\/p>\n

The church has safety measures in place, such as parent observers positioned inside and outside during services with the doors locked.<\/p>\n

“Thank God he was there and on alert,” Palombi said about the detective.<\/p>\n

St. Mary’s school sent an email to parents thanking the detective for his vigilance and for keeping the church community safe as they reflect, pray and fast as they enter Lent.<\/p>\n

“It is a reminder to be good and keep the ones you love close,” Palombi said. “It’s a reminder to be good and keep the ones you love close.”<\/p>\n

Police said the 20-year-old had no license to carry that gun, and he could be facing charges for bringing a loaded handgun onto school grounds. Additional charges may be possible.<\/p>\n

The department is still investigating what relationship, if any, the man may have had to the church and school, and why he showed up in the first place.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A person with a gun was detained while trying to get inside St. Mary’s Church in East Sacramento…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":{"0":"post-183952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-sacramento","9":"tag-sacramento-headlines","10":"tag-sacramento-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}