The suspect is now facing a federal charge of possessing a firearm within a school zone \u2014 and the school\u2019s principal credits parent volunteers serving as safety monitors for preventing what could have been a tragedy.<\/p>\n
The incident comes some six months after the deadly shooting<\/a> at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis during a school liturgy.<\/p>\n Suspect with firearm attempt to enter church during Ash Wednesday Mass<\/p>\n On Feb. 18, St. Mary Parish in Sacramento was celebrating an all-school morning Mass for Ash Wednesday when a former student, 20-year-old Brian Richard Girardot Jr., attempted to enter the parish church at about 9:30 a.m.<\/p>\n Almost two hours earlier, Girardot had dropped off a younger relative, who attends the school, and then returned to the parish campus with a loaded revolver as the Mass was in process.<\/p>\n In a Feb. 18 statement, which was posted to St. Mary Parish School\u2019s Facebook page and reposted by the parish, principal Amy Hale said that \u201call church doors were locked per our standard procedure.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition, she said, \u201cparent observers were positioned outside and inside of the church.\u201d<\/p>\n One of those observers, whom Hale said was \u201can off-duty law enforcement parent,\u201d noticed \u201ca suspicious male adult approach the front of the church\u201d who asked to be admitted to the church to attend Mass.<\/p>\n \u201cThe parent observer asked more questions and detained the man,\u201d Hale said in her statement. \u201cThe observer located and removed a loaded firearm, concealed on the man\u2019s person.\u201d<\/p>\n The Sacramento Police \u201cresponded within minutes,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Suspect arrested by off-duty police detective providing security<\/p>\n According to court documents, Girardot was \u201cstopped and subsequently arrested\u201d by an off-duty Sacramento Police detective, who was providing security for St. Mary Parish that day.<\/p>\n The off-duty detective also searched Girardot\u2019s car, where additional ammunition and a camouflage jacket were found.<\/p>\n Court documents noted Girard\u2019s revolver, a Taurus Tracker .44 magnum caliber, was likely obtained through interstate commerce, since the manufacturer does not produce arms in California.<\/p>\n During a police search of Girardot\u2019s Sacramento residence the same day, officers located a shotgun and four rifles in a safe in the garage.<\/p>\n Handwritten notes found in suspect\u2019s bedroom<\/p>\n A set of handwritten notes was also found in Girardot\u2019s bedroom, with one profanity-laced message describing it as a suicide note. Another note named three relatives, adding, \u201cAll of you are the reason Ive done this.\u201d<\/p>\n Girardot said in a police interview that he had written the notes at an unspecified earlier time, and had retrieved them to look at them.<\/p>\n \u201cThe notes were found on top of a pile, however, suggesting that he had recently placed or moved the notes there,\u201d according to a court document.<\/p>\n One prior arrest for trespassing in 2024<\/p>\n The document also noted Girardot had one prior arrest by California Highway Patrol in June 2024 for trespassing at a California state building under construction at the time.<\/p>\n Along with the federal charge, Girardot has been charged criminally in state court, said the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Eastern District of California in a Feb. 19 release.<\/p>\n If convicted, Girardot could face a maximum prison sentence of five years, the release said.<\/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 Hale said in her statement. \u201cNo students came into contact with the man, and were unaware of the situation happening outside. After Mass the children were escorted back to class.\u201d<\/p>\n Gina Christian<\/a> is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"6 (OSV News) \u2014\u00a0A California parish school averted a possible mass shooting, thanks to the quick intervention of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":{"0":"post-191862","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\/191862","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=191862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260224T1445-SACRAMENTO-CHURCH-THWARTED-SCHOOL-SHOOTER-1814013-768x1024.jpg\")
St. Mary\u2019s Church is pictured in an undated photo in Sacramento, Calif. On Feb. 18, 2026, the parish was celebrating an all-school morning Mass for Ash Wednesday when a former student, 20-year-old Brian Richard Girardot Jr., attempted to enter the church. An off-duty law enforcement officer and school parent detained and unarmed the former student. (OSV News photo\/Frank Lienert, courtesy Diocese of Sacramento)<\/p>\n