Friday, March 29, 2024

Man Charged with Arson After Fires at Black Churches in St. Louis Area

david lopez jackson
David Lopez Jackson

*OK, so what is this fool trying to prove?

In St. Louis, authorities have charged David Lopez Jackson with arson in connection with two of seven church fires in a predominantly African-American part of the St. Louis area.

Even though Jackson, 35, from St. Louis has been charged for the fires, federal investigators said there is no evidence of a hate crime.

The charges filed against Jackson on Friday in St. Louis Circuit Court iwere two counts of second-degree arson in the fires at Ebenezer Lutheran Church and New Life Missionary Baptist Church, both in the city.

St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said investigations continue into the other fires — three in St. Louis, two in nearby Jennings — and Jackson is a suspect in all of them, according to an AP report at Mashable.

The fires were set between Oct. 8 and Oct. 22. Five of the congregations are predominantly black, one is racially mixed and one is mostly white.

The fires spurred a hate-crime investigation to determine if the attacks were motivated by race or religion. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives downplayed that possibility in a statement on Friday.

“There appears to be no indication of a hate crime or sign … any one particular Christian denomination or ethnic group was being targeted,” the federal agency said.

Dotson gave no alternative explanation for the attacks, saying investigators “are still trying to understand” the motive.

The St. Louis  region is still recovering from the events surrounding last year’s police shooting death of 18-year-old unarmed black man, Michael Brown in Ferguson, a St. Louis suburb, and a grand jury’s subsequent decision not to charge the white officer, Darren Wilson, who shot him.

Read/learn MORE at Mashable.

 

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