A man who police say was found armed inside a Haymarket, Virginia, church in September will now face an additional charge over his intent to injure or kill the congregation, authorities said Monday.
Rui Jiang, 35, was charged with attempted aggravated murder of multiple persons on Monday, months after he went inside Park Valley Church armed with a handgun, an extra magazine and two knives during church services on Sept. 24, Prince William County police said in a news release.
The additional charge comes after police analyzed digital evidence taken from Jiang’s home in Falls Church under a search warrant.
“Based upon the recent analysis of the digital evidence, physical evidence collected at the time, and the social media postings on accounts used by the accused depicting the church with threatening language, indications were the accused intended to cause harm, injury, and death to the church congregation,” police said.
Jiang has remained in custody since being arrested in September. He was initially charged with threats of bodily harm and with carrying a dangerous weapon into a place of religious worship.
On that Sunday morning, police received reports from someone in Maryland who’d called 911 after seeing that Jiang had posted “vague threats of violence” on social media along with images of the Park Valley Church, which is located at 4500 Waverly Farm Drive.
Fairfax County police went to Jiang’s home, but were unable to locate him.
At that time, Jiang was inside the church. Though the church was unaware of the threat, Pastor Barry White told WTOP in September that security was watching over Jiang because he was wearing all black clothing and sunglasses indoors.
Prince William County police contacted an off-duty officer who was at the church. The officer and church security detained Jiang near the entrance, police said.
“It was … a miracle of God,” White said about the fact the police officer was at the church at the time.
Jiang had attended a few church events over the summer, White said.
“I noticed that in his social media posts, he was upset with the government and had indicated that he believed a lot of government employees attended our church,” White said.
WTOP’s Mike Murillo contributed to this report.
