*Mississippi’s Republican secretary of state says the fire that burned the historically black Hopewell Mission Baptist church in Greenville this week and the spray painted “Vote Trump” left on its exterior may not be political or racial, so people need to “calm down.”
“The initial work here indicates this is not of a political nature even though there may be something that says ‘Vote Trump’ on the side of the church,” said Delbert Hosemann. “So everybody needs to calm down here until we get to the bottom of this.”
Hosemann said Wednesday he came to his conclusion after speaking with “authorities in Greenville” and the state Highway Patrol about the attack. Those discussions led him to believe that the vandalism was not committed by “somebody of a political nature.”
Watch below:
WDAM-TV 7-News, Weather, Sports-Hattiesburg, MS
Meanwhile, law enforcement in Greenville is investigating the church arson as a hate crime.
As previously reported, a GoFundMe page was set up to help the church rebuild. It’s initial goal was to raise $10,000, but the site has since raked in more than $170,000 in donations as of Thursday afternoon.