I reached for the remote. I found CNN. And saw Todor – in a hospital gown, his left arm heavily bandaged, looking like he hadn’t slept, his voice heavy with what I sensed immediately was manufactured anguish. He was telling the reporter:

‘As I explained to the police Mrs Elise Flouton was a retired UCLA professor, a women’s rights activist who’d become involved in helping abused women flee from violent spouses and partners. This young woman – whom I can’t name for legal reasons – was pregnant after a relationship that started three years ago when she was fourteen with a certain Richard Grout – who had been employed as a bodyguard for Mr Patrick Kelleher. Last week, after an abusive episode at home, she made contact with the group for which Mrs Flouton works. Mrs Flouton took her in and, discovering that Richard Grout was hunting her, whisked her off to a safe house in the desert. Unfortunately he made contact with one of my parishioners, Teresa Hernandez, who has indeed worked for the charity I founded: Angels Assist. Being a fierce anti-abortion activist she was obsessed with the work of Elise Flouton – who was known in the LA area for helping many women in need to get abortions. Morally and ethically I follow Pope Francis’s teaching against abortion. But like His Holiness I am also very much against violent activism – of which, sadly, Teresa Hernandez was an advocate. It seems that she was able to put a tracer on Mrs Flouton’s phone and found out where she was sheltering the young woman. When she told me that Grout was desperate to find the mother of his soon-to-be-born child I felt it was my pastoral duty to intervene. I suggested the three of us drive east to where Mrs Flouton was harboring this much mistreated woman. Alas when we got there, there was an angry exchange between Mrs Hernandez and Mrs Flouton. When Mrs Flouton called Mrs Hernandez a terrorist she became outraged and pulled out a gun and shot Mrs Flouton. She fired indiscriminately and also hit the young woman in the stomach, killing her unborn child. Grout then went crazy. I tried to stop him and was shot by him. Then he turned his gun on Mrs Hernandez – but not before, in a final response, Mrs Hernandez took several shots at him. But before he died he still managed to return fire, killing her. It was a horrifying business – especially as that poor woman lost the six-month-old boy she was carrying. And it just goes to show that we must rethink extremism on all sides when it comes to the debate about abortion. I am praying hard now for this young woman who has lost her precious child and will, no doubt, grieve over his death for the rest of her life.’

The journalist then came on, saying that the California State Police were continuing their investigations into this brutal multiple killing. And that a spokesperson for Patrick Kelleher would be making a statement shortly.