Pastor Mark Vance: Murder-suicide at Cornerstone Church 'worst day of our lives'.
Mark Vance, lead pastor of Cornerstone Church in Ames, Iowa.Screenshot: Cornerstone Church.Mark Vance, lead pastor of Cornerstone Church in Ames, Iowa, where two Iowa State University students were shot dead by a man who took his own life in the church's parking lot last Thursday, couldn't find a word to describe the heartbreak he's experienced since the worst day of his life.
"Thursday, June 2, 2022, was the worst day of my life," Vance told his congregation on Sunday. "It was the worst day of a lot of our lives, a lot of people in this room, family members who lost loved ones, many of us who just had one of the most precious places to us shattered by violence. It's the worst day in the life of Cornerstone Church."
Vivian Flores, 21, and her friend Eden Montang, 22, were at the church to participate in a worship program for college students known as The Salt Company, Vance said.
The Salt Company is a student-led ministry that planted Cornerstone Church in Ames in 1994. Some 1,300 students usually attend the ministry's weekly large group gathering.
Montang and Flores were outside the church at approximately 6:50 p.m. when Johnathan Lee Whitlatch, 33, shot them with his Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol before turning the gun on himself, authorities say. CT.
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