Sacramento Church Shooter Arrested Days Earlier In Officer Attack

SACRAMENTO, CA — The father who police said shot his three daughters, their chaperone and then himself inside a Sacramento church had been arrested days earlier and accused of drunkenly attacking a police officer and driving under the influence.

Armed with an AR-15-style rifle, David Mora, 39, shot four people and then turned the gun on himself during a supervised visit with his daughters Monday afternoon at The Church in Sacramento, a nondenominational Christian place of worship, officials said Tuesday. Mora was living at the church, Sacramento County sheriff's Sgt. Rod Grassmann told KXTV-TV.

The girls were identified in court records as Samia, 13; Samantha, 10; and Samarah, 9, The Sacramento Bee reported. All attended schools in the Natomas Unified School District.

Nathaniel Kong, 59, the chaperone for the visitation and an executive in the church, was also shot to death.

Court records showed Mora was arrested last week in Merced County and accused of resisting arrest, battery on a police officer and DUI after authorities said he attacked a Los Banos California Highway Patrol officer.

“He was drunk and while they were arresting him or trying to he decided he wanted to fight and ended up with felony charges because he assaulted a CHP officer, causing injuries,” Deputy Daryl Allen of the Merced County Sheriff’s Office told The Bee.

Prior to that, the three girls' mother — who was with Mora for about 15 years before they became estranged — sought a domestic violence restraining order, fearing for her safety, court documents showed. Kong served Mora with a restraining order in May. The mother described him as jealous and mentally unstable.

"He threatened to kill me if he ever caught me cheating. ... He has choked me in the past," she wrote in court filings.

Mora "said that he has not killed me because he would not know where to go with the children," the woman said. Her name is being withheld because she was abused.

Mora was hospitalized for a week in April after "expressing a desire to commit suicide," the woman also said.

Mora was taken into custody for a mental health evaluation In April 2021. Nine days later, a temporary restraining order was granted that prevented him from having a gun or ammunition. A five-year restraining order was imposed May 19 that was served by Kong. It stipulated Mora could only have supervised visits with his daughters for up to four hours a week, with a mutually agreed-upon chaperone. He also had to take anger management courses.

Oscar Maldonado, a friend of the family, told CBS Sacramento that Mora was hard-working and aggressive. He battled drug abuse and was mentally ill.

"He was very emotional, like really emotional," Maldonado said.

"He loved his daughters, but I think that love was too much that he didn't want to share that love," Maldonado said. "In his head, it makes sense. In ours, it doesn't make sense because we wouldn't even think of that, but that was his thought process, I think."

Faith Whitmore, chief executive of the Sacramento Regional Family Justice Center that provides services to victims of domestic abuse, said the girls' mother sought help through the agency last April. A case manager and an attorney worked with her to obtain the restraining order.

"She came in, she needed crisis intervention, she needed resources, she needed help," said Whitmore, who did not work directly with the woman.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.