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Police: Wanted man arrested during Fayetteville church service

A man wanted on kidnapping and robbery charges was arrested at a Fayetteville church on Sunday when he disrupted the service, police said Tuesday.

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Kevin Whiting, Fayetteville church incident
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — A man wanted on kidnapping and robbery charges was arrested at a Fayetteville church on Sunday when he disrupted the service, police said Tuesday.

Officers responded to report of communicating threats in the 1100 block of Fontana Street at about 10:15 a.m. Sunday and learned the the suspect in the case had walked to Smith Chapel Freewill Baptist Church, on Boundary Lane, where a deacon reported that the man was inside and acting very agitated, police said.

Members of the congregation were moved from the two pews around the man, but as police tried to determine the best way to take him into custody, he began running around the minister at the pulpit and creating a disturbance, police said. Officers used a stun gun to subdue him.

Kevin Stephen Whiting, 52, of Hillsboro Street, was charged with resisting, delaying and obstructing officers.

Whiting also was served with outstanding warrants charging him with second-degree kidnapping and common law robbery. Those charges stem from a Dec. 14 incident in which a woman seeking a ride and beaten and driven around against her will by a man who demanded money for the ride.

Whiting was being held in the Cumberland County jail under a $13,000 bond.

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