JACKSON, Miss. – The Mississippi fire marshal says investigators don't see politics as the motivation for the burning of an African-American church that was also spray-painted with the words "Vote Trump" a week before the presidential election.
But Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, who's also state fire marshal, says there are signs it may have been done to appear that way.
A 45-year-old man who's a member of the church and has a prior criminal record was arrested Wednesday and charged with first-degree arson of a place of worship.
Andrew McClinton of Leland, Mississippi, is scheduled to make an initial court appearance Thursday in Greenville — the city where Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church was burned and vandalized Nov. 1.
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