OPELOUSAS, La. (AP) Each church catered to an African American congregation. Each graced a rustic, country setting. Each fronted a small cemetery. And each is now a charred disaster scene, the result of three conflagrations that brought echoes of civil rights-era violence to Opelousas, a city of about 16,000 people in rural St. Landry Parish, Louisiana.
The announcement that an arrest had been made was welcome news in and around Opelousas.
Im very relieved, Harry Richard said Thursday. He is the pastor of Greater Union Baptist Church, the site of the second fire. This takes a lot of the pressure off us in terms of who was behind all of this. Im very relieved.
The arrest was confirmed late Wednesday by U.S. Attorney David C. Joseph in a news release. Details, including the suspects identity and race, were not immediately clear. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards was among authorities planning to attend a Thursday morning news conference in south Louisianas St. Landry Parish. There, more information was expected on a case that had rattled many in the area.
I would like to know whether he was working alone or not, the Rev. Freddie Jack, of the Seventh District Missionary Baptist Association said Thursday morning. We cant let our guard down.
In the days leading up to the arrest, pastors and parishioners at the churches acted with dismay and a kind of restraint.
Its like the 60s again, said Earnest Hines, a deacon at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church the site of the last fire.
Yet Hines, and others connected to the churches, were careful not to automatically label the fires as racist acts.
I dont know why this happened, and we dont need to jump to conclusions, said Hines, a member of the church for more than 40 years. We need to let them investigate, let the evidence come out. Jack and Richard expressed similar sentiments.
The first fire torched the St. Mary Baptist Church in Port Barre last month. Days later, the Greater Union Baptist Church and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Opelousas were burned. Each was more than 100 years old.
The churches were empty at the time of the fires, and no one was injured. Investigators with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were still combing the scene at Mount Pleasant and warning onlookers away on Wednesday, a week after the fire.
Investigators had retreated from the ruins of St. Mary Baptist Church in Port Barre, a town just outside of Opelousas and the site of the first fire on March 26. There and at Greater Union, which burned April 2, evidence of the fires intensity was more visible. Exterior walls of brick and wood had collapsed on rows of metal folding chairs at Greater Union. All that was left of what looked to have been an upright piano was the lattice-work of steel strings.
