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Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Thursday the arrest of three individuals allegedly linked to coordinating the disruptive protest that invaded Cities Church in Minnesota over the weekend.
According to AG Bondi, Homeland Security and the FBI arrested Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Louisa Allen on Thursday morning.
Armstrong “allegedly played a key role in organizing the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.”
Both suspects were taken in on an alleged violation of the FACE Act, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.
The FACE Act, or the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994, is twofold. Per the DOJ, it prohibits the use of the threat of force or physical obstruction for those seeking to obtain reproductive healthcare services, or for those exercising First Amendment rights of religious freedom in a place of worship.
A third arrest was made several hours after the initial two suspects were taken into custody. AG Bondi identified the third suspect as William Kelly.
“Our nation was settled and founded by people fleeing religious persecution. Religious freedom is the bedrock of this country. We will protect our pastors. We will protect our churches. We will protect Americans of faith,” she wrote on X.
The arrests come after disturbing social media footage emerged online over the weekend, capturing the moment when protesters entered a church service, disrupting the proceedings and chanting what appeared to be anti-ICE rhetoric, like, “HANDS UP, DON’T SHOOT.”
Following the incursion, the Trump administration launched a federal investigation of the incident. AG Bondi promised that those seeking to attack law enforcement or intimidate Christians “are being met with the full force of federal law.”
As reported by RSBN, following the disruption within the house of worship, some protesters allegedly followed congregants into the parking lot and attempted to keep attendees from leaving.
President Trump reacted to the circulating video online that showed the protestors disrupting the church service, writing on Truth Social, “These people are professionals! No person acts the way they act. They are highly trained to scream, rant, and rave, like lunatics, in a certain manner, just like they are doing. They are troublemakers who should be thrown in jail, or thrown out of the Country.”
Protesters seemed to believe that one of the pastors from Cities Church might also serve as an acting director of an ICE field office in St. Paul, according to RSBN.
However, the pastor speaking on Sunday has been identified as Jonathan Parnell, and he does not appear to be the individual who may have been targeted by protesters, although he was in the pulpit when the church was invaded.
According to Decision Magazine, the individual allegedly linked to ICE may simply share the same name as someone working at an ICE field office. The outlet noted that protestors “included members of the Racial Justice Network and Black Lives Matter Minnesota.”
Following the incident, Pastor Johnathan Parnell released a statement on the Cities Church website, condemning protesters’ violation of the house of worship.
“Such conduct is shameful, unlawful, and will not be tolerated,” he wrote. “Invading a church service to disrupt the worship of Jesus — or any other act of worship — is protected by neither the Christian Scriptures nor the laws of this nation. We welcome respectful dialogue about present issues, and about how the realness of Jesus, as revealed in the Bible, provides the only final answers to the world’s most complex and intractable problems.”
