Authorities have named a suspect in the burnings of three historically Black churches in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, and CNN reports he is the son of a local sheriff’s deputy.
According to CNN, State Fire Marshal Butch Browning said the suspect, Holden, 21, has been charged with three counts of simple arson of a religious building. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 15 years. “We can now confirm all three of these fires are intentionally set, and all three of these fires are related,” Browning said. Police said they are still looking into a motive, and federal officials are examining whether the fires were a hate crime. Charges are allegations, and Holden has not been convicted of anything.
Browning said investigators found information, some of it offered by Holden himself, that suggests a possible connection to black metal music and its history with church burnings in other parts of the world. Those connections have been documented in movies and books, he said. Browning added that questions about hate as a motive are still being reviewed by federal authorities.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards also spoke to reporters. “I don’t know what was in his heart, but I can say it cannot be justified or rationalized,” he said, adding that hate is not a Louisiana value.
The fires happened within about a week of one another. The first was on March 26, followed by Greater Union Baptist Church in Opelousas on April 2 and, two days later, Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in the same town. The FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting, CNN reports.
The NAACP has called the fires domestic terrorism and said the rise in church burnings in the South reflects emboldened racial rhetoric and tension across the country. The suspect’s father, a sheriff’s deputy, was reportedly shocked and hurt to learn his son was a suspect.
