Editorial: Police were right to remove suspect from church

It is never a good idea to interfere with police officers trying to do their job.

Even if people think they are right to step in, in certain situations, there are times where it is not only flat out wrong to do so, but the decision to do so puts police in an uncomfortable position to make a decision they shouldn’t have to make. This is the case no matter how righteous the person trying to intercede thinks he or she is.

Never was this more true than Tuesday when a man who had allegedly violently assaulted his mother fled her home and ended up in a church.

Firefighters had alerted police that they were on the scene of a serious domestic violence assault where a 59-year-old woman had allegedly been assaulted by her 34-year-old son.

While searching for him, officers received a tip that the suspect was at the Old Stone Church in East Haven.

When police contacted the church, employees were not sure whether the suspect was inside but gave police permission to search the church and the attached day care facility.

The suspect was found in an upstairs office of the church.

Police took him into custody without incident and put him into a police cruiser to take him in for booking.

For all intents and purposes, their job was done and that should have been the end of it.

But that was before the pastor of Old Stone Church arrived on the scene and inexplicably demanded that police release the suspect to her.

According to the pastor, police had no right to arrest the suspect inside the sanctity of the church, evenfor felony domestic violence charges.

The pastor, who was reportedly irate, furthered her defiance by attempting to get in front of the police cruiser when an officer tried to drive away. Eventually, police were able to defuse the situation and take the suspect to jail.

While the pastor apparently thought she was doing the right thing, we do not agree.

The church has long been a place for those seeking asylum from religious, social or political persecution — and it should remain so.

But it cannot become a place where criminals run to seek refuge from the law.

East Haven Police Lt. Joseph M. Murgo said — in part — in a press release, that “While the East Haven Police Department respects the sanctity of a church, we also owe it to victims of domestic violence to apprehend suspects who commit violent felony assaults” — and police believe “the decision to enter the church was the correct one in this particular situation.”

We strongly agree. Police were right to remove the suspect from the church and the pastor was wrong.

According to a Facebook posting by the church on Friday, the pastor has resigned, effective immediately.

In potential volatile situations such as this, the public — who often do not have all the information about an incident — must recognize that police are trying to diffuse a combustible situation. The pastor’s actions could have escalated a situation police had under control.

Police often walk a tightrope when trying to make an arrest — and the stakes and intensity go up when they try to apprehend a person in a domestic violence situation.

The lesson here is to let police do their job — and if there is a question about their actions or the rights of a person, place or thing, let the courts decide if police were wrong.