Russian police arrested a man Sunday in a knife attack that left LDS missionary Elder Jose Manuel MacKintosh dead and Elder Bradley Alan Borden seriously injured in the town of Ufa in central Russia.
Local authorities told representatives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the arrested man has a long criminal history. They also said they believe the suspect is the only person who wielded a knife in the incident.Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Monday that information from government sources was still sketchy but seemed to indicate the stabbing was random violence rather than an attack aimed at the church or a sign of increasing intolerance in Russia. The church has also emphasized that conclusion.
Elder Borden, 20, remained in an Ufa hospital Monday and will be moved to a hospital in Germany soon to continue his recovery, his mother, Myrna Borden, said from the family home in Mesa, Ariz. Monday morning. Whether he returns home or is recovering well enough to continue his missionary service will be determined after he is evaluated in Germany, she said. The missionary wants to stay and complete his two-year mission assignment, she said.
Elder MacKintosh, 20, of Hiko, Nev., died at the scene. Arrangements to return his body to the United States and funeral services are still pending, the church said Monday.
A State Department official told the Deseret News that it had sent officials from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and a consulate in Yekaterinburg to Ufa "to meet with local authorities and medical people. They are working to make arrangements to transport the deceased's remains back to the United States."
The official said the State Department is providing updates to the families of the attacked missionaries, and has been told that the missionary who was wounded is expected to survive.
Elder Borden talked to his parents on the phone Saturday evening and told them he and Elder MacKintosh encountered two men in an apartment building stairwell as they were leaving the home of an LDS family. One of the men drew a knife, but Elder Borden deflected it with his arm. The missionaries then fled down the stairs with the two men in pursuit.
The missionaries were able to stay ahead of the pair until another group of men outside slowed their getaway and allowed the attackers to catch up with them, Myrna Borden said Monday. "Bradley turned around, and he was stabbed in the stomach. Then they tried to get away again, and (the assailants) stabbed Elder MacKintosh in the chest."
"We ran 50 yards before they caught up to us again and starting hitting us," Elder Borden said in a televised interview from his hospital bed. He broke free and ran. When he turned around, he said, he saw Elder MacKintosh lying on the ground.
"When (Bradley) realized he (MacKintosh) had fallen, he came back. He wrestled the knife away from the attacker, and they ran off," Myrna Borden said. "It was an unprovoked attack."
Church spokesman Don LeFevre said a member of the family the missionaries had been visiting saw the attack and called for an ambulance. A doctor at the hospital was a local LDS Church leader.
"He was not the one who did the surgery, but he was there and was on top of things," Myrna Borden said.
Elder Borden had written letters home saying he had been heckled before and there had been minor scuffles and run-ins, "but nothing he has worried about," his mother said. "Every missionary goes through some of that. . . . No matter where you are, there are people out to make a little trouble."
The Bordens have another son who recently returned from missionary service in New Zealand. A number of Elder Borden's cousins have also served missions and saved their stories about dangers in the world until they returned home, Myrna Borden said.
Hatch said threats to missionaries are not uncommon even in America - and said he once faced a serious one himself as a young missionary.
When he and a companion knocked on a door in Springfield, Ohio, in 1954, Hatch said, he was greeted "by a man holding a gun. I looked him in the eye and said, `We are ministers of the Lord. And if you pull the trigger, the gun will blow up in your face and kill you.' "
He said that made the man think twice and slowly lower the gun. "My companion and I walked away, and when we were about 10 feet away - we ran."
Hatch added, "It was terrifying. So I have a lot of concern about missionaries - especially in places where the church is less well accepted than here."
LeFevre said the church missionary department received word of Sunday's arrest from President Donald Jarvis, president of the Russia Yekaterinburg Mission, which includes the Ufa area.
Authorities informed President Jarvis of the suspect's criminal background but publicly released little information about the man. However, they did indicate to President Jarvis that the suspect alone was responsible for the injuries inflicted on both missionaries, LeFevre said.
Investigators also believe the stabbing was an indiscriminate attack and was not directed toward the LDS Church, according to Rais Galin, an Ufa police spokesman quoted in an Associated Press report.
"That is our understanding as well," LeFevre said. "We feel strongly that this was a random act of violence and that the church was not specifically targeted."
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who also is a member of the LDS Church, also said, "It appears from all the information that I have that this was a random act of violence."
Reid said he conveyed to the Clinton administration all the information about the slaying that the church had, "so it is aware of the situation and can do everything possible to help the family and church."
Reid said when he heard the news, he immediately thought of his three sons and a son-in-law who had also served LDS missions.
"These young men and women go with a message of peace. To have an ending like this is a tragedy," he said. Reid added that he is arranging his schedule to attend the funeral on Saturday "to lend moral and any other kind of support that I can."
LeFevre said there were apparently numerous witnesses to the incident, some of whom recognized and identified the suspect. A number of witnesses, including Elder Borden, said it appeared that the assailant had been drinking.
The ITAR-Tass news agency also reported witness statements indicating that the man who stabbed the missionaries was drunk at the time.
Elder MacKintosh had been serving as a missionary since September 1997, and Elder Borden since January of this year.
"We mourn for the parents, for the families - and the whole church mourns," said Elder L. Aldin Porter, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy.
The church has about 59,000 missionaries worldwide, including more than 500 in Russia.