- Shots disrupted a Salt Lake demonstration on Saturday, causing chaos and fear.
- St. Mark's Cathedral opened its doors, providing refuge for fleeing protesters.
- Bishop Spiegel led efforts to calm and protect the crowd inside the church.
SALT LAKE CITY — When shots rang out in downtown Salt Lake City on Saturday night during a No Kings demonstration, people took off running in different directions.
Many of them were on 100 South or State Street and took shelter in nearby buildings, including St. Mark's Cathedral. Some church staff were there during the incident, and they opened the church's doors without hesitation.
Kim Paturzo, who participated in the demonstration, said the shooting took place at the "very tail end of the march."
"People started running north on 200 East and yelling, 'Shooter,'" Paturzo said.
Numerous people at Saturday's demonstration said the day was going smoothly.
"There was an amazing vibe," said Bishop Phyllis Spiegel of the Episcopal Diocese of Utah, who was at St. Mark's Cathedral.
Then chaos broke out.
"Someone kept yelling, 'Go to the church,'" Paturzo said.
Paturzo said she hesitated outside of St. Mark's Cathedral.
"I didn't want to get blocked in," she said.
At this time, Bishop Spiegel was ushering people inside to safety.
"I didn't hesitate a single moment," she said. "The nonanxious presence is the way we're trained to be as clerics. And it was a great gift to be that in that moment and to ask people to look behind them and make sure everybody was safe behind them."
The nonanxious presence is the way we're trained to be as clerics. And it was a great gift to be that in that moment.
–Bishop Phyllis Spiegel, Episcopal Diocese of Utah
Bishop Spiegel had also been walking in the march. She said it instantly turned hectic.
"There were people who were scared, and there were people who were terrified, and they were melting down pretty fast," she said. "And the crowd just started helping them get in (to the church)."
Paturzo remembered Bishop Speigel calming down the packed cathedral.
"I stuck around for a little while, and she did say a prayer with everybody that was in there, and it was very comforting, actually," she said.
Bishop Spiegel said she's heard from several people who don't practice her faith, but they felt grateful for what they experienced inside the sanctuary.
"One person at the doors, only one, said to me, 'How do I know they're not going to follow us in here?'" Bishop Spiegel recalled. "And I said, 'Because I will stop them.'"
She said even during the scariest parts of the night, there was beauty: human beings helping each other.
"I think angels are all around us. And we get to do that work with one another," she said. "And when we are given that help, we are more likely to turn and be that helper for someone else."
Paturzo said after everything that happened on Saturday, St. Mark's Cathedral will always be a beacon of safety and comfort for her.
