Criminal proceedings were suspended Monday against a Bonita woman who is accused of pulling a gun on a church congregation on Easter Sunday.
Steven Cline, the attorney for Anna Linda Conkey, 31, told San Diego Superior Court Judge Michael Smyth he doubted she was mentally competent to understand court proceedings.
Smyth suspended criminal proceedings and ordered a psychiatrist to visit her in jail and provide a mental evaluation to another judge to determine if she is mentally competent.
A hearing was set for Aug. 5 for a judge to hear the report. Deputy District Attorney Matthew Greco said if she is found incompetent, she will be sent to a psychiatric facility for treatment.
If she regains her competency, she will return to court for a preliminary hearing which was canceled Monday by Smyth.
Greco said Conkey went inside the Church TsidKenu at 4240 Mount Everest Blvd. in Clairemont. She had attended services there before.
The pastor was concluding his Easter message when Conkey stood up holding her baby and pointed a gun at several people in the congregation.
“She said they were all going to die,” said Greco, who added she then pointed the gun at her nearly 1-year-old child.
Several church members wrestled the gun away from her, which turned out to be unloaded, and another grabbed her baby, said Greco.
Greco said the first 911 caller was Conkey herself, telling a dispatcher there was a woman in the church with a gun and that bombs had been planted. A search of the church found no explosives.
“Mental issues will play a role in this case,” said Greco at the arraignment.
Conkey made an online video before the incident and said she was a prophet. She claimed she was asked to leave the Church Tsidkenu because they disagreed with her opinions.
The church described itself on their website as “a non denominational church focused on encountering God.” The name of TsidKenu was described as “one of seven covenant names for God in the Old Testament.”
Though no ammunition was found with Conkey, police found ammunition at her Bonita home. Her husband was on the East Coast in the military at the time, but he returned here to care for the children.
She is charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, three counts of making criminal threats and one attempted threat, bringing a gun into a school zone, making a false bomb threat, child endangerment, resisting an executive officer, and a misdemeanor count of disturbing a religious meeting.
