Two sister missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Chile Concepcion South Mission were assaulted Thursday morning in Temuco, Chile.
LDS.net affiliate LosMormones.org reports that two men barged into the home where four sister missionaries live, threatening the young women with a BB gun, acting as though it was real. Prior to leaving the home with stolen items, the perpetrators attacked two missionaries, one of whom they sexually assaulted.
The crime occurred around 6:00 AM Thursday, April 30, 2015. The sister missionaries, from Argentina and Chile, were able to quickly notify the police allowing law enforcement to make an arrest minutes after the suspects left the home, according to Los Mormones. The suspects are charged with robbery, intimidation and rape.
Sounds to me like this was just a random act of violence as opposed to a hate crime. I don’t know if the door wasn’t properly locked or what but all missionaries, not just sisters, have to be equipped with some kind of self-defense, whether it be martial arts, pepper spray, or a tazer. Also, mission presidents need to ensure that the missionaries are living in the safest parts of wherever they are serving as possible. Nothing will prevent tragedy entirely, but certain measures can certainly be taken to make horrific events like this less likely in the future.
I agree. Most likely they observed that there were mostly women in that place and figured it to be an easy target. It’s unfortunate that they were not familiar with guns or else this would have turned out differently. Perhaps teaching about how to recognize fire arms would help.