Nearly all suspects arrested in St Paul church storming; MLK’s niece says tactics ‘not the way’
Nearly all suspects indicted in the January storming of a Minnesota church have now been arrested — including two apprehended abroad — as Dr. Alveda King warns the hostile tactics "are not the way" of the civil rights movement led by her uncle, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Her comments come as Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said Wednesday that nearly all individuals indicted in connection with the January storming of Cities Church in St. Paul have now been arrested.
"As of Monday, all 39 individuals indicted in the attack on Cities Church in MN had been arrested, two of them while abroad," Dhillon wrote on X before later clarifying that one suspect remains at large. "We will find and arrest this individual."
"It is so important to take a look at what is going on in America today, especially as you mentioned, the church that was stormed by angry protesters, challenging the people who were there worshiping God," King, a Fox News contributor, told Fox News Digital.
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"I was taught to protest prayerfully and non-violently," she said. "So yes, I was absolutely shocked and disturbed to see a worship service disturbed with hostility. That is not the way to get God's attention. That should not be the way to get America's attention."
King, who participated in the civil rights movement as a youth organizer in the 1960s, said churches were gathering places — not targets. "When we were in the church, we were singing, we were praying, we were strategizing," she said. "They were not hostile. They were not combative."
She drew a direct line between the Civil Rights Movement she experienced and the tactics she saw in Minnesota.
"Any movement that is rooted in violence and hostility, throwing rocks, disturbing or yelling or screaming. That is not the way of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."
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"The way to get someone's attention does not have to include violence."
King said her perspective is shaped by her own family history.
"My father, Reverend Alfred Daniel Williams King, was a Christian pastor until he was killed, assassinated in 1969," she said. "His church in Louisville, Kentucky was bombed during the Fair Housing Movement."
"I was taught to love, to forgive, to repent, and to walk together with my human brothers and sisters."
Fox News Digital previously reported that an anti-ICE mob stormed Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, interrupting a worship service after protesters claimed a pastor inside was affiliated with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Video circulating online showed agitators chanting inside the sanctuary as the service began.
Following the incident, the Department of Justice opened an investigation "to determine whether civil rights laws were violated," Fox News Digital reported. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon wrote on X that the Civil Rights Division is investigating potential violations of the federal FACE Act.
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King framed the disruption as a broader issue of religious freedom.
"We have to have religious freedom in America. That is one of our credos," she said. "And if we have religious freedom we should be able to congregate peacefully and worship."
"My religious liberty should be there with safety, comfort and assurance without the threat of violence."
When asked what her uncle would say today, King pointed to his own words.
"Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, we must learn to live together as brothers and sisters or perish together as fools."
"I believe if my uncle were here… he would say, pray, get along and work it out."
Fox News Digital's Greg Wehner contributed to this reporting.
Dr. Alveda King is the Chair of the American Dream Coalition at the America First Policy Institute. She has been appointed by President Donald Trump and Secretary Brooke Rollins as a Senior Advisor on Faith and Community Outreach at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).