DETROIT (LifeSiteNews) — A traditional Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Detroit is being commended for taking action on Monday night to stop a suspect fleeing the scene of an alleged hit-and-run.
Canon Jean-Baptiste Commins, originally from France and pastor of St. Joseph Shrine, an apostolate of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP), was in the parking lot of the church when he heard screeching tires and a loud crash. Upon investigation, Commins realized a car crash had happened on the corner of Saint Aubin and Antietam.
TLM priest tackles and punches carjacker trying to steal a woman’s car! WATCH: pic.twitter.com/rySp28xyOA
— John-Henry Westen (@JhWesten) June 3, 2026
When one of the suspects began to run towards him, a woman yelled out for someone to stop him. At that moment, instincts took over, Commins told LifeSiteNews.
“I didn’t think twice. It was instinct,” he said. “And this had to be done quickly and efficiently.”
Commins quickly intervened, tackling the 18-year-old suspect fleeing from the car, which Detroit police believed to be stolen. As Commins fought to restrain the suspect, he urged a church member to call the police.
“Everything happened so fast,” said Commins. “I did a lot of French kickboxing, ‘savate,’ in high school. So it was nothing new, I knew what I was doing. I am grateful he didn’t have a gun or a knife.”
Once the police arrived and arrested the suspect, Commins’ attention turned to the victim of the crash, whom he had at first believed to be hurt.
“Once he was handcuffed, I went back to the [victim] to make sure she was all right. I wanted to make sure an Anointing [of the Sick] wasn’t needed.”
After determining the woman to be in good health, Commins returned to the rectory, prayed the Divine Office, and ate a meal with his Church community, he told Fox 2 Detroit.
“Just another day in the D,” the priest joked.
Commins’ church, St. Joseph Shrine, is one of the only remaining parishes in the Archdiocese of Detroit to celebrate the Latin Mass daily. The Shrine itself has seen a drastic uptick in the number of parishioners, baptisms, and weddings during Commins’ tenure. The Shrine is currently undergoing a $3.2 million restoration project aimed at preserving and repairing the more-than-a-century-old building.
Canon Commins said that he hoped the story encouraged people, especially women, to train themselves in basic self-defense, noting that this type of situation could happen to anyone.
“I did not do anything exceptional,” he said. “I simply did what my conscience and good Catholic education naturally and instinctively told me to do: to defend the common good, and to remove any threat from myself or others, and to assist the injured.”
