The fire set at St. John’s Reformed United Church of Christ in Virginia was a hate crime, according to federal investigators. The News Virginian reports;
Federal agents on Monday confirmed the weekend blaze at St. John’s Reformed United Church of Christ in Middlebrook was arson and a hate crime against the church.
“We’re looking at it as a civil rights violation,” Lawrence Barry, spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said Monday.
The arson falls in line with federal hate-crime statutes banning attacks on property “with a religious character.”
Meanwhile, investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have “definitely” ruled the Saturday morning fire as arson, said Bart McEntire, resident agent in charge of the ATF in southwest Virginia.
It would appear that the federal government is reacting appropriately to this act of violence.
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