Man tries to kill father during prayer

The violence began right after the church’s altar call, when people who want to make a spiritual commitment step forward and publicly offer themselves to God.

Instead, Ethan Buckley pulled out his pocket knife, turned to his father and stabbed the older man over and over again, reports by Washington Post online.

He later told a detective he had been having thoughts of killing his father, David Buckley, and wanted to cut his ‘jugular vein so it would be painless,’ according to a police report obtained by The Washington Post.

Witnesses told ABC affiliate WBKO that the older man was stabbed ‘multiple times on different areas of his body.’

As 21-year-old Ethan Buckley tried to kill his father, shocked attendees of the 9:30 a.m. service at Hillvue Heights Church in Bowling Green, Ky., sprang into action.

‘A lot of people that were around the immediate area helped subdue him,’ police spokesman Ronnie Ward told The Post. ‘The associate pastor is one of those people.’