(Photo : Rodrigo Soldon/Flickr/CC) The suspect is being held for setting fires at the doors of New Life Missionary Baptist Church and Ebenezer Lutheran Church.
A 35-year-old man has been detained in connection with two of the seven church fires in St. Louis. He is also suspected to be involved in other fires, all of which took place within a period of two weeks last month.
David Lopez Jackson is charged with setting fires at the premises of Ebenezer Lutheran Church and New Life Missionary Baptist Church, based on circumstantial evidence, according to the media reports.
City police chief Sam Dotson said that his car was seen near the Baptist church, making him a suspect for the arson, while forensic evidence suggested his involvement in the Lutheran church fire. Also, a gasoline container and a bottle smelling of gasoline was found from his car.
The accused is being held on a $75,000 cash bond, and has not yet been charged with setting fires to other churches, but is presumed a suspect. The police said he was a suspect even before the incident of seventh fire.
The first six fires were within six miles from his home, but the seventh one was in a shrine at the other end of the city.
In all of the churches, the exterior door was set on fire, which gave rise to small blazes. Most of them were contained, but some spread to cause more damage. No injuries were reported due to the fires.
Police have not yet been able to determine what the suspect's motives may have been behind the fires, as the churches were not uniformly one type. The buildings set on fire were a curious mixture of Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, and nondenominational churches. And though the first six churches were predominantly African-American, the last church set on fire, Shrine of St. Joseph Catholic church, has a predominantly white congregation. The suspect is also black.
The news of Jackson's arrest came as a reprieve to the churches in St. Louis.
"There's so much division among the body of believers. I think God is allowing this to happen to bring churches closer together so we can fight a spiritual battle," David Triggs of New Life Missionary Baptist Church -- which was recently renamed United Believers in Christ Ministries -- told The Washington Post. "The arsonist, he's not my enemy. I forgave him the moment I pulled up to the burning church. I believe he is spiritually sick, and that's the way we have to address this - by setting our differences aside and praying together."
"We pray for the person who has done this. It seems to be mentally off-balance behavior," Pastor Rev. Robert Gettinger of St. Augustine Catholic Church told the St. Louis Dispatch.
He was reportedly subjected to a mental health evaluation in 2009.
Jackson has a history of criminal record that dates back 17 years. He was first arrested for using a weapon illegally. His crimes ranged from petty burglary, domestic abuse, resisting police officer, and a few counts of drug-related offenses. In August of 2014, he was accused of stealing two lanterns. Later, the same year, he was apprehended for assaulting a police officer and causing first-degree property damage, to which he pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to four months in prison, which were to be followed by four years of supervised probation.
