Man with knife attempts to attack pastor at North End church

Winnipeg police are describing the attempted knife attack of a pastor at a North End church during service Sunday evening as “random.”

The Winnipeg Police Service says the suspect in the Holy Ghost Parish incident was not a regular church-goer.

“The pastor let the police know that he did not recognize this individual who had come on the stage,” Winnipeg police Const. Stephen Spender told CityNews.

Church was just getting underway around 6 p.m. when police say a man approached the altar and advanced toward the 38-year-old pastor.

A video on Reddit of the alleged attack shows a pastor singing a hymn at an altar as a man in a yellow jacket advances toward him. The man grabs at the pastor’s robes and raise what appears to be a knife. The pastor screams and runs away, and the suspect then drives the weapon into the altar before sitting in a chair at the back of the altar. No injuries were reported.

Apparent attempted knife attack at Holy Ghost church.
byu/-BlueHeadphonez inWinnipeg

“The pastor was able to see what was happening, whether he saw the knife in his hand or just had a sense that something wasn’t right, was able to get off the … alter fast enough,” Spencer said.

“If he was really motivated, it could have been a lot worse. The fact that he made the attempt to assault the pastor then got rid of the knife and just sat down, was the best case of a worst case scenario that somebody would face. It could have been a lot worse. Luckily, nobody got hurt.”

An off-duty RCMP member and other church attendees detained the suspect, according to authorities, until police arrived and took him into custody.

“It doesn’t sound like it was a targeted attack at all. It really sounded like it was just a random incident. Very rare, but quite random,” Spencer said.

“Something like this, the motivation can be really hard to know.”

Winnipeg’s Pawel Olownia, 50, has been charged with assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon and more. He was detained in custody.

The Holy Ghost Parish on Slekirk Avenue in the North End is a Polish Catholic church.