Hill Cumorah tourists take cover after bullet hits complex

The Hill Cumorah in Manchester, New York, is the place where Joseph Smith met annually with the angel Moroni from 1823 to 1827. On Sept. 22, 1827, the angel allowed Joseph to obtain the golden plates from which the Book of Mormon would be translated. Someone fired gunshots at and around the visitors’ center maintained by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Wednesday, June 8, 2022. (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)

A western New York man was arraigned on a reckless endangerment charge Thursday after a round he fired while target shooting struck a window at the Hill Cumorah complex, leading tourists to take cover and prompting a massive police presence at the religious site, state police said.

Local, state and federal law enforcement officers descended on the historic area east of Rochester, considered important to the founding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, after gunfire was reported at about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday.

State troopers and Ontario County sheriff’s deputies reported hearing more shots when they arrived. About 75 people who were inside the Hill Cumorah Visitor’s Center at the time were told to shelter in place until being evacuated by police SWAT teams.

No one was hurt.

Investigators determined the shots were coming from a 23-year-old Fairport resident who was target shooting from farmland west of the Hill Cumorah complex, state police said. He was taken into custody, arraigned Thursday and released. Authorities do not believe he intentionally fired at the complex.

Prior to the announcement of an arrest, a spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said in a statement that several shots were fired at or near the visitor’s center.

Gratefully, no injuries have been reported,” the statement by Eric Hawkins said. The church did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Latter-day Saints believe that their faith’s founder, Joseph Smith, found metal plates in the hills of nearby Palmyra in 1823 that became the Book of Mormon. Beginning in 1937, the event was celebrated in the annual Hill Cumorah Pageant that drew tens of thousands of visitors to the site each year.

The Salt Lake City based-church announced in 2018 that the pageant would end after 2020 as it moved away from large-scale productions. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the final shows.

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1 Comment

  • Joseph Smith June 9, 2022 at 3:28 pm Reply

    I sure hope the angel wasn’t injured.

    Mormons: Please re-read the text in the caption. I hope that resonates with some of you. How utterly crazy that is. An ANGEL met with a human and told him to find some gold plates. An angel. I’m not aware of that happening much. Please, someone, with today’s video technology, please capture an angel for me. Or was Joseph just a really special guy? Probably that. SMH

    Not just picking on the mormons. It’s as silly as the rest of them. But eerily similar. One person happens to have a vision, but no one else can see. And are given a message that only they hear. The vision also happens to put the person in a position of power. Money and sex will probably follow. But for the answer to the afterlife – seems reasonable.

    Nut jobs.

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