The attackers were arrested, and the authorities claimed they were members of a sect called Eastern Lightning also known as "Church of Almighty God". In the wake of the murder, authorities engaged in widespread arrests of the group's members. Covering the trial and the confessions of the accused assassins, reporters for the Chinese daily The Beijing News wrote that the perpetrators were in fact not members of Eastern Lightning at the time of the murder,The Beijing News (2014). "山东招远血案被告自白：我就是神, The Confession of the Defendant of the Murder Case in Zhaoyuan, Shandong: 'I am God Himself.'" August 23. Compiled by Yang Feng (Accessed 13 February 2020). a position also maintained by some Western scholars who wrote about Eastern Lightning.Dunn, Emily (2015). Lightning from the East: Heterodoxy and Christianity in Contemporary China. Leiden: Brill, p. 204. .
