{"id":189534,"date":"2026-02-23T03:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T03:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/189534\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T03:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T03:30:08","slug":"chilling-notes-found-after-gunman-tried-to-storm-catholic-school-mass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/189534\/","title":{"rendered":"Chilling notes found after gunman tried to storm Catholic school mass"},"content":{"rendered":"

Handwritten notes referencing suicide and threats reveal a 20-year-old was preparing for \u201ca violent incident\u201d when he tried to bring a loaded gun into a Sacramento Catholic church on Ash Wednesday, prosecutors say.<\/p>\n

On the morning of February 18, Brian Girardot Jr. dropped off his younger relative at St. Mary Parish School before retuning shortly after with a gun<\/a>, according to a federal indictment filed on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"St.Handwritten notes referencing suicide and threats reveal a 20-year-old was preparing for \u201ca violent incident\u201d when he tried to bring a loaded gun into a Sacramento Catholic church on Ash Wednesday, prosecutors say. St. Mary Parish\/Facebook<\/p>\n

Girardot, who was a former student at the school, then attempted to enter the church during an all school Mass.<\/p>\n

He was disarmed and detained when a parent observer, who also happened to be an off-duty cop, saw a \u201csuspicious male adult approach the front of the church,\u201d and sprang into action, St. Mary Parish<\/a> said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additional ammunition and a camouflage jacket was found in Girardot\u2019s vehicle that was parked nearby the church, according to the indictment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"InteriorOn the morning of February 18, Brian Girardot Jr. dropped off his younger relative at St. Mary Parish School before retuning shortly after with a gun, according to a federal indictment filed on Thursday.\u00a0 St. Mary Parish\/Facebook<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to the vigilance and professionalism of our parent volunteers, our children remained safely inside the church for the duration of Mass and a potential crisis was averted,\u201d the school said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo students came into contact with the man, and were unaware of the situation happening outside.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Law enforcement searched Girardot\u2019s home where they found a stack of handwritten notes in his bedroom that contained references to suicide and threats<\/a>, the indictment said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of you are the reason I\u2019ve done this,\u201d read one of the notes that was addressed to three relatives, according to CBS News<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prosecutors told the outlet that the notes, in addition to other evidence, show Girardot was engaged in \u201cpreparations for a violent incident.\u201d<\/p>\n

Girardot was charged with possessing a firearm within a school zone, US Attorney Eric Grant announced on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was also charged criminally in state court, according to the indictment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If convicted, Girardot faces a maximum prison sentence of five years\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Handwritten notes referencing suicide and threats reveal a 20-year-old was preparing for \u201ca violent incident\u201d when he tried…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[7,27481,723,5456,4182,121,123,122,30853,3586],"class_list":{"0":"post-189534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-catholic-church","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-guns","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-sacramento","14":"tag-sacramento-headlines","15":"tag-sacramento-news","16":"tag-threats","17":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189534","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=189534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}