The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said that while three of the six fires that burned predominantly black churches last week are likely not hate crimes, the investigations are ongoing.
The three church fires erupted on three consecutive days beginning Monday of last week, in Knoxville, Tennessee; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Macon, Georgia.
The ATF, which is federally mandated to investigate all church fires and bombings, said Tuesday that "we have no reason to believe these fires are racially motivated or related." But, the officials said, "we are in the early stages of these investigations."
"We have special agents and certified fire investigators from several field divisions investigating the fires to determine cause and origin," the agency said in a statement.
Local fire departments have said that each of the three fires were arsons. But the ATF hasn't determined if the fire in Macon is arson or not, ATF Public Information Officer Larry "Nero" Priester told BuzzFeed News.
"Based off of what fire investigators have found so far, there is no basis for a racial motivation," Priester said. "If we could prove that the fire was intentionally set somehow, that would be the first step toward determining hate crime." Other factors could include "if there was graffiti written inside using racial slurs," he said.
The ATF is in touch with fire investigators in Charlotte and Knoxville to investigate a any possible connection between the fires.
"At this point we haven't found any connection," Priester said.
Gerod King, spokesperson for ATF's South Carolina and North Carolina divisions told BuzzFeed News that the fire that scorched Briar Creek Baptist Church in Charlotte has been confirmed as arson, though they have no suspects at this time.
King reiterated Priester's statement that investigators are not seeing any indication of a connection between the various church fires, though investigations are on going.
"Someone who's intent on doing something to someone's church usually wants people to know what they did," King said. "They often call in to get credit. We're seeing nothing like that here."
FBI spokeswoman Shelley Lynch said that their Charlotte, North Carolina branch had opened a their own and preliminary inquiry, working with the ATF and local officials' investigation, into the "suspected arson" at the Briar Creek Road Baptist Church, to determine if "any federal crimes were violated" – including any hate crimes.
Joyce McCants, spokeswoman for the Knoxville Division, said, "Knoxville FBI has been engaged with the local authorities regarding the church fire, but they are the primary investigators at this time."
Briar Creek Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
WBTV / Via wbtv.com
"I think the cause for alarm would be the proximity of these fires to the incident that occurred in Charleston," an ATF source told BuzzFeed News.
"Church fires like this are no longer very common," the source added. "They are no more common than any other fire."
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1IqM1e7
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