Following the horrific Charleston shooting, more crimes have been committed against African American civilians in the United States’ southern states. A previous report from the Inquisitr covered the suspicious fire that appeared to be intentionally set in a North Carolinian, predominately black church. Since then, a black church has gone up in flames in at least three other states, leaving investigators to wonder what percentage of these fires were set by hate-motivated arsonists.
According to the Augusta Chronicle , the FBI has gotten involved in the investigation of a predominately black church that was destroyed in a fire in Warrenville, South Carolina, on Friday. The fire consumed the building by 3:30 a.m. and took Midland Valley firefighters an hour to put out. No one was hurt, but nearly the entire Glover Grove Baptist Church was destroyed in the fire. By the time Reverend Bobby Jones arrived at the scene, the church was already burned to the ground.
“It was gone when we got there. That quick,” he said. “It’s a mystery to me.”
According to the Associated Press , the Federal Bureau of Investigation is joining forces with local law enforcement to determine the cause of the fire. Captain Eric Abdullah of the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office has handed over the case to investigators from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
If the predominately black church in Warrenville was set on fire deliberately, that would make it the fourth southern black church to be destroyed by arsonists. Fires were intentionally set at a black church in both Charlotte, North Carolina, and Macon, Georgia. And according to the Daily Kos , an early morning fire was also set in a predominately black church in Tallahassee, Florida. Firefighters were called to Greater Miracle Apostolic Holiness Church at 5:20 a.m. Nobody was hurt in this fire, either, but power lines were brought down as a result.
Raw Story reports that while the black church that was burned down in Macon, Georgia, was determined to be the work of arsonist, authorities are not considering it a hate crime . Macon-Bibb County fire Sergeant Ben Gleaton explained that the investigation into the fire set at God’s Power Church of Christ will continue, but there is so far no reason to believe the arson was a hate crime.
What do you think about arsonists targeting a black church over a predominately white one? Are these attacks the result of the Charleston shooting? Can they be considered hate crimes?
[Image credit: the Aiken Standard ]
