SAN JOSE — More than a year after five people were stabbed there in a brutal attack that sent shock waves through the community, Grace Baptist Church in downtown San Jose is facing a new lawsuit that accuses it of failing to protect those who worked and took refuge on the property.
The lawsuit blames the church and its nonprofit partner, Grace Solutions, for allowing the November 2020 attack that killed two people and injured three more in a homeless shelter that operates out of the church. Fernando Jesus Lopez, who lived in the shelter at the time and now is awaiting trial for the stabbings, had a violent past and should not have been allowed to stay on the property, according to the lawsuit. It also accuses the church and the nonprofit of failing to provide security.
The allegations, filed earlier this month in Santa Clara County Superior Court, come as the nearly 100-year-old church is struggling with its enrollment and finances following the killings and the COVID-19 pandemic. The church is in talks to sell its property to a developer, despite the objections of some members of the congregation. And, citing safety concerns, the church’s new pastor has lost confidence in its homeless shelter — potentially threatening the future of a program that provides showers, meals and warm beds for dozens of unhoused people every winter night.
