*Police need your help in identifying a woman caught on video surveillance trying twice to set a Black church on fire in Berkeley, Calif.
For the second time in a year, a Black church in Berkeley was the target of an arson attack that the pastor believes was racially-motivated, reports local CBS affiliate KPIX. Ebenezer Baptist Church on Woolsey and Martin Luther King Way was the latest.
In video shared to KPIX by the pastor, a woman is seen returning twice within 7 minutes to try and set the prominent African American church ablaze. The woman is shown pacing around the building, throwing bricks at the window and pouring lighter fluid on the grass.
“By the grace of God the lighter wouldn’t take, it wouldn’t come on full force and nothing was being lit up,” said lead pastor Kevin Craddock II.
It happened in the early morning hours of August 14, but Pastor Craddock didn’t realize anything had happened until after service the next day, when he discovered red marks on the window. He then watched it unfold on the surveillance video.
“It was very painful to watch, very concerning in 2021 to see someone attempt to burn down an African American church,” he said.
Watch below:
Anyone who knows anything about this incident is asked to contact the Berkeley Police Department.
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