There were people inside. The gas guy, 37 years old with a Spanish name (that means nothing, btw), even spilled gas even while speaking with the security guard, who alerts counterterrorism in a manner that tells a stunning story about preparedness. Really, really impressive.
The guy’s story about just wanting to cut through the cathedral as a short cut to his car that was out of gas was immediately fact checked and found to be untruthful. Actually, he took full gas containers from inside his vehicle and then tried to enter the Cathedral.
Here’s a picture of what a see something say something situation looks like, this guy’s four gallons of gas and two bottles of lighter fluid and two lighters, you know, just in case:
You can’t accidentally spill gas out of those kinds of containers. I have exactly the same kind. You would have had to have had the caps so loose that they would just barely be on. No one does that.
It reminds me of a suspicious crowd coming to the rectory looking for gas money. I asked to see their car. They obliged. I asked that the car be turned on. They obliged, thinking that doing all this would get them money. They said they only needed to go forty miles, so, say, three gallons round trip for that vehicle. The needle on the gas tank level indicator went right up to full to the brim. I pointed that out and only then did their faces fall, knowing that they had been had.
The guy with the gas spoken about in the video above is detained and is assisting law enforcement with an investigation. I’m sure he’s just as successful as the crowd who came to the rectory. ;-)
Meanwhile:
We DO NOT know much about either Notre Dame or the guy at Saint Pat’s. It’s early days.
I’m not drawing any analogy. I’m not drawing any conclusions. I’m not saying anything about purposes, motivations, accidents, whatever. I’m just saying that I’m reminded of another cross at ground zero not far from Saint Pat’s:
The perpetrator was a phi beta kappa Jesuit educated philosophy professor and Catholic music director.
No doubt! Lol!
Kyrie eleison
Many years ago, when I was young and looking for a job, I saw among the help wanted ads one for full-time, paid ushers at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, so I know that the cathedral is protected by people who may be called ushers, but actually amount to security guards. Those walking into the cathedral are greeted with a table where bags are checked. I’m inclined to think that this person did not case the cathedral much at all if he thought he’d get in there with so obvious a threat, but it does give one pause nonetheless. I generally avoid the cathedral in favor of less inviting targets and churches less frequented by tourists.