Members of the Westboro Baptist Church on Sunday staged a protest at Central Junior High School in Moore, Okla., KFOR-TV reported.
The anti-gay group notorious for protesting military funerals wrote on its website that it would protest Moore because the massive tornado that devastated the town last year was “God’s wrath” against “phony ‘Christians.'”
The residents of Moore lined up across the street from the Westboro picketers in a counter-protest.
Westboro had a permit to hold a 30-minute protest, but the counter-protesters chased members of the Westboro Baptist Church away a few minutes past their limit, according to KFOR.
The Huffington Post posted a video uploaded by counter-protester that shows the Westboro picketers leaving after a few town residents started crossing the street:
“I was afraid of a riot really. I didn’t know how long Westboro would stay, which they were smart to leave,” Moore resident Dan Eccles told KFOR.
Police kept counter-protesters from Westboro members as they were leaving, but did not make any arrests, according to KOCO News.
The founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, Fred Phelps, died last month, and was reportedly ousted for calling on the group’s members to be kinder to each other.
Shortly after Phelps’ death, a Westboro Baptist Church protest at a Lorde concert in Kansas City was met with counter-protesters holding a sign that read, “sorry for your loss.”
Image via YouTube
