After a fire at a black church in Mississippi that was also spray painted with the message "Vote Trump," the FBI and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation are assisting local police in determining who was involved and why.
The fire on Tuesday night damaged the sanctuary, kitchen, and pastor’s office of the 200-member Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville, Mississippi.
Mayor Errick Simmons gave a news conference about the fire Wednesday, calling it a hate crime and a “heinous, hateful, cowardly act” that was intended both to disrupt worship and to “intimidate voters,” The Associated Press reported.
Arson investigators collected evidence, but the exact cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Police are talking to a person of interest but have no suspects.
“We will not rest until the culprit is found and fully prosecuted,” Simmons said, according to the AP.
The membership of the 111-year-old church doesn’t yet know where it will meet this Sunday, but Pastor Caroline Hudson said they would rebuild on the same site. “The act that has happened has left our hearts broken but we are strong together,” Hudson said, the AP reported. “We are not angry, but our hearts are broken.”
The mayor said the racial climate of the town was good, with an interracial worship gathering during months with five Sundays to worship together on the levee during the fifth Sunday.
“The only way to conquer hate is love,” Simmons said, according to the The Clarion-Ledger. “We must show love, respect and dignity to each other.”
Frank Dean, a local supporter of Donald Trump, told the Clarion-Ledger he doesn’t believe a Trump supporter did this. Dean is contributing to the rebuilding of the church and he believes many others will as well.
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