Claim: Truck driver involved in capture of sniper suspects prayed with other truckers that the sniper would be caught.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2002]
An amazing story you'll want to share with others Always looking for inspiring stories to demonstrate the power of prayer, The Presidential Prayer Team shares this amazing story in the news today. Please pass it on to inspire others. 50 Christian truckers got together to pray to pray that somehow the sniper terrorizing the Washington, DC area would be caught. Ron Lantz would be retiring as a driver in a few days and didn't even live in the A few days later he was listening to the radio as he was driving again through the region and felt compelled to pull off the highway to a rest stop. It was just a couple of miles from where the prayer meeting had taken place. As he pulled in, he was shocked to see a car similar to what was being described on the radio right there before his eyes. Carefully trying to read the license plate, a chill went up his back as the numbers matched. He quickly called 911 and remained there for what he said were the longest Ron's testimony is being beamed around the world today. It shows the power of prayer. And in a class act, showing his true character, when asked what he would do with the award money, he said the half million dollars would simply be given to the victims' families. The snipers killed 10 and wounded 3 around our nation's capital over the past three weeks, leaving the entire region in a state of terror. Yet out of the great darkness has also come a great beam of light as the |
Origins: There is much to admire in the actions of Ron Lantz, a truck driver from Ludlow, Kentucky, who pulled into a truck stop off of
custody.
Many of us would probably turn tail and run if we found out we were in close proximity to wanted serial killers. That
Ron Lantz is also the men's ministry director at the Central Church of the Nazarene in Fort Wright, Kentucky, and in press interviews he did indeed say that he had taken part in a gathering of truckers who prayed that the sniper would be caught (although in no interview we've come across yet did Lantz state that he believed "God was going to use him to catch the sniper"):
Ron Lantz was one of them. "We prayed for the families of those killed by the sniper," Lantz later told friend Larry Dillon. "We prayed that someone would stop him."1
As they zigzagged across the country, dozens of truckers radioed each other agreeing to gather at a remote Kentucky rest stop to pray that the
sniper would soon be caught.
The claim that these events constitute a "clear testimony of the power of prayer" is a rather dubious one, however. Although Ron Lantz received most of the publicity, he was not the only person
Rest stop attendant Larry Blank said another motorist also spotted the suspects and called police, the New York Post reported. Blank said he and the unidentified motorist watched as cops "surrounded the whole rest area and told us we need to stay put, that they was going to have ATF and all kinds of people coming through there." Maj. Greg Shipley, a spokesman for the Maryland State Police, said investigators know the identity of the first person who called 911 and reported the blue Chevrolet Caprice in which John Allen Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, 17, were sleeping. "He was certainly a concerned citizen who had, not long before, heard a broadcast for the lookout and was alert and spotted that vehicle," Shipley said. Shipley said the individual's name is being withheld because he is a witness in a criminal investigation. The man lives in a bordering state, but comes to Maryland regularly for work, he said.2
As for the $500,000 reward, it's not yet clear how much Lantz or anyone else who assisted in the investigation might receive. He was not the first to call in and ID the car, authorities noted.
Moreover, since the suspects were asleep in their car at the time and made no attempt to escape, Lantz's blocking of the rest stop exit was not instrumental in their capture. Although the humble
Perhaps the message we should be considering is not the sugar-coated surface message, but a more troublesome one it obscures: If the murders of ten people were used to tout the effectiveness of Bushmaster brand rifles or the reliability of the Chevrolet Caprice, the waves of condemnation from an outraged and disgusted public would be deafening
Last updated: 9 March 2007
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