Man Arrested For Threats Against Grace City Church

A 35 year old Wenatchee man who allegedly made threats against Grace City Church (GCC) is facing charges to bomb or injure school and church property.

35 year old Samuel Joseph Antonio Guillen is accused of posting a short video threatening to harm the church and children on Sunday, December 29th.  The video was tagged "Samuel Guillen is at Grace City Church"

Guillen's alleged threats included references to "shoot up your house, burn down your buildings and your house and rape children", according to the complaint by church menbers who spotted the social media post and notified Wenatchee Police.

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The threat was taken very seriously by GCC leadership.

The church's head of Security, Justin Kissell said it was particularly alarming because a church event was planned the same evening the threatening post was discovered.

"We had an event that night for our Grace Kids workers so I was immediately making a plan to be there that night to have some security presence on our church property just to make sure he didn't show up to carry out those threats"

Given today's culture, GCC proritizes security to ensure a safe environment for worshipers and guests alike.

"Our congregation is pretty aware of our security measures" Kissell says.  "We do have a visible presence which is usually myself in uniform and we have volunteers on the rest of my team who are current and former law enforcement, military personnel,  EMS and fire.  They are in plain clothes blended in throughout the congregation, the community hall and the children's area.  Any place we have the kids, we have protection there as well" Kissell stressed.

Security measures at the church has been the target of some of GCC's critics.

According to Wenatchee Police Captian Edgar Reinfeld, Guillen was already under arrest at the time they were notified of the video threats.  Guillen was under arrest for an assault of an employee at the Evergreen Smoke shop in Wenatchee where workers tried to stop him for shoplifting merchandise.

Guillen will make a preliminary court appearance next Tuesday on charges of suspicion of threats to bomb or injure school property or children and threats to bomb or inure a place of worship and church members.