Violence Enters Churches’ Doors : Crime: Four fatal incidents have occurred since the mid-1980s, turning once accessible houses of worship into fortresses.

Maria de Jesus Garcia was standing on the altar at Verbo de Dios in central Los Angeles two Sunday nights ago when two teen-agers drove by, shouted “trick or treat” and opened fire through the doors of the sanctuary, critically wounding her in the stomach.

Verbo de Dios was considered a neutral zone where crime-weary residents of the Central City and South-Central could escape the violence.

But, then, so was St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church, less than two miles away.

Last June, three gunmen went on a rampage at the St. Agnes church hall, shooting one man and robbing 18 parishioners. Two months later, a nun was seriously injured when a transient stabbed her in the chest five times while she was working in the church garden.

Los Angeles’ Central City and South-Central churches, long regarded as asylums from life’s brutality, are increasingly becoming the targets of crime, according to police and church officials.

Some churches have been forced to cancel evening services because worshipers are afraid to go out after dark. Others have hired security guards to watch over congregants and their cars, considered easy targets for carjackers and thieves.

Church officials have spent thousands of dollars building barriers to keep the criminals at bay. As a result, houses of worship that were once easily accessible from surrounding neighborhoods now resemble fortresses, surrounded by fences crowned with barbed wire.

Since the mid-1980s, Los Angeles area churches have been the scene of at least four fatal incidents.

In 1985, a man shot and killed a pastor and a deacon inside a Chinatown Baptist church. The gunman--a former church member--was fatally shot by an off-duty sheriff’s deputy who had been attending the service.

In 1986, a man described as despondent over the end of his engagement opened fire inside a La Puente Church of Christ. His spray of automatic gunfire killed two church members and wounded two others.

In 1987, a bullet splintered the stained-glass window of a Baptist church in Watts, killing a choir member walking down the aisle after rehearsal.

In 1989, a gunman burst into the Mt. Olive Church of God in Christ in South-Central Los Angeles and opened fire on parishioners with a sawed-off shotgun, killing two people and injuring another.

Although police say violence at churches is still rare, church officials see the crimes as a disturbing trend.

“It’s very sad that the days that we thought our churches were sanctuaries seem to be gone,” said Father Gregory Coiro, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese. “There has been such a breakdown in the social fabric. . . . We don’t have any kind of invisible protection to the social ills that plague everyone else.”

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The nun who was stabbed nearly three months ago at St. Agnes, Sister Margaret Ann Nowacki, 67, has almost fully recovered. She was lucky. None of the stab wounds were deep enough to hit a vital organ.

Police have been unable to find the woman who attacked the nun as she worked in the garden at the church in the 2600 block of South Vermont Avenue.

The nun said the transient went into a rage after she asked the woman not to come into the garden with a shopping cart filled with trash and personal belongings. Before the nun realized what was happening, the woman pulled out two butcher knives and “just started slashing.”

“I was totally aghast that this could happen,” the nun said. “I’ve been at the church 12 years and nothing like this has ever occurred. People are changing. They are more desperate.”

In the June robbery at the church, a North Hollywood resident attending a weekday evening service narrowly escaped serious injury when a robber fired a shot, hitting the churchgoer in his arm and side. As the wounded man sank into his seat, the robber and two accomplices quickly reached into the pockets of 18 parishioners, stealing money, jewelry and car keys.

The two incidents served as a wake-up call for the parish’s nuns.

“Now a sister cannot even garden out in the front yard,” said Sister Agnes Vieno.

The nuns asked the church to build a barrier around the convent. Last week, workers finished installing an eight-foot iron fence in front of the small house where the women live.

“We think prudence demands the fence,” said Sister Agnes.

St. Agnes’ pastor, Father William Delaney, said that after watching poverty and crime spin out of control in the neighborhoods, he assumed that violence would eventually reach his church.

“It was just a matter of time,” he said. “If something is present in the community, sooner or later it is going to touch the church. It’s just the way it is.”

He blames the recession.

“One of the things would greatly help if there would be economic development here,” Delaney said. “These people need jobs.”

At nearby Phillips Temple Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, church organizers used to hold services almost every night. But that changed within the past year.

“We have had major crime right by the church,” said the Rev. Paul Stewart. “There was a drive-by shooting aimed at someone near the church.”

Since then, the church holds few gatherings after dark. The church doors are kept locked almost all the time. Six carjackings and numerous thefts have forced officials to hire two security guards to patrol church grounds around the clock.

At Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Western Avenue, church officials have increased security primarily to make sure no one tampers with congregants’ cars.

“People are scared,” said Octavia Carr, a secretary at the church. “Christians are told to have faith in God regardless of the time of day. But our streets are very, very dangerous.”

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The Rev. Wendell Woods, who leads the services at Roger Williams Baptist Church on Adams Boulevard, said his church has escaped with only a few burglaries and no serious violence.

Nevertheless, church officials were not willing to chance their luck. They spent $10,000 to install a fence around the grounds.

“We went 25 years without needing a fence,” Woods said. “Now we have one.”

But, as Maria de Jesus Garcia learned on Halloween night, a fence cannot stop a bullet.

About 100 worshipers had gathered for a prayer service at Verbo de Dios in the 5900 block of South Hoover Street that evening when a small red car carrying two teen-agers slowed down in front of the open doors of the church. Garcia, 47, had just stepped onto the altar to tell the congregation about the blessings God had given her.

At first, the churchgoers thought the shots were just firecrackers--until Garcia collapsed. She was listed in stable condition at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, where she underwent surgery.

Until the shooting, the church had suffered only a few minor burglaries.

“Supposedly this is a holy house,” said Patricia Vasquez, a church member who witnessed the shooting. “People just don’t respect the church. They don’t respect other people’s lives. Nobody’s life.”