CLAIREMONT, Calif. (CNN Newsource) — Prosecutors said surveillance video from a Clairemont church shows a woman with a gun in one hand and her baby in the other.
“I want all you guys to just get down and pray,” Pastor Ben Wisan said. “Just get down and pray.”
Wisan stayed incredibly clam during a moment of chaos.
Surveillance video released Friday from the Easter Sunday service where a mother allegedly threatened to open fire.
You see the pastor on the left — Conkey on the right, holding her baby in one hand and a gun in the other.
“I want the ushers to stand up get people out, just get people outside, don’t worry,” Wisan said.
31-year-old Conkey sat in shackles as she relived those moments in court.
Wisan shared his side of the story.
“She said ‘you don’t know what it means to be wiling to die’, she had a baby and a gun and we had a pretty good feeling that she was going to get shot and maybe some of our people were going to get shot,” he said.
Wisan had to think fast to prevent panic.
“I thought first I’m pretty sure that’s a real gun and then I thought, okay there’s something that looks like a Taser and I know this would keep people a lot calmer so I’m just gonna say it’s a taser out loud,” he said.
“It’s just a taser but we want everyone outside,” Wisan said to those in the church.
The pastor even tried to protect Conkey from getting hurt.
“Anna you gotta put that down the police are coming in really hot,” he said. “They don’t know it’s a taser, you gotta put it down right now.”
Conkey had also allegedly threatened to blow up the church at one point — calling police on herself.
Churchgoers were eventually able to wrestle the gun out of Conkey’s hand and get the baby to safety.
Police later determined the weapon was not loaded.
Wisan said Conkey had disrupted services weeks before the incident.
He had tried to set up a meeting with her but it did not happen.
Conkey pleaded not guilty to several felony counts including child abuse, making criminal threats and a false report of a bomb.
A judge will determined if the case will go to trial.