Westboro Baptist Church protests at service for five family members killed in crash

Three members of the Westboro Baptist Church out of Topeka, Kan. came to demonstrate yesterday at a funeral service. The memorial service was for a family of five that had been killed in a car crash in Ohio.

BALTIMORE- Yesterday a memorial service was held for a family of five. They had been killed on Dec. 30 by a truck going the wrong way on I-280 in Toledo, Ohio. The police said the driver was drunk at the time he slammed into the side of a minivan with eight people in it. A mother and four children were killed in the crash. The children ranged in age from two months to ten years old. As family and friends filled the Lutheran church there were also some that were not welcome guests. The Westboro Baptist Church from Kansas had three members there about a block away from the church. This group is known for their protests at military funerals. Why did they decide that they would demonstrate at this service that had nothing to do with the military? According to MLive.com the three demonstrators said

the deaths are God's retribution against the community for a recent $11 million jury award against the Kansas group.

Albert Snyder, from York, Pa.,sued the group after they had protested at his son's military funeral in Maryland. In Oct. a federal jury in Baltimore made the award of the $11 million. Fred Phelps one of the demonstrators said the community will "pay the price" for persecuting his church just because they were preaching God's word.