ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 2, 1996 TAG: 9607020067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHESTERFIELD
SOURCE: Associated Press
FIRES HAVE BURNED more than 40 black churches in the past 18 months. Federal authorities have been investigating fires at about that many white churches during the same period.
Although three white teen-agers were arrested in an April 16 fire that destroyed a black church building, investigators ruled out race or religious bias as a motive Monday.
``They wanted to burn something. The fact that it was a church was not a factor,'' said Bill Dunham, agent in charge of the Richmond office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Suspicious fires have hit more than 40 black churches in the South in the past 18 months. Federal authorities have been investigating suspicious fires at approximately that number of white churches during the same period.
Arson early Sunday caused an estimated $55,000 in damage to a predominantly black church near Maysville, N.C. Investigators found remains of Molotov cocktails made of beer bottles and an accelerant, possibly gasoline, at the rural St. James AME Zion Church.
A small fire also was set Sunday at a black church under construction in Greenville, Miss., but police suspected juvenile vandalism, not a racial motive.
Investigators also classified the Virginia fire as vandalism, said Capt. James Bourque, head of Chesterfield County's fire investigation division. ``It's in an out-of-the-way place where teens often congregate,'' he said.
Police Chief Carl Baker said a tip led to the weekend arrests of two men and a 16-year-old girl in the April fire at the First Baptist Church of Centralia's auxiliary building.
Leigh Tatum Odom, 18, of Richmond and Adam Thomas Sapp, 19, of Midlothian were charged with malicious burning of an unoccupied church and were jailed in lieu of $25,000 bail. The 16-year-old was held as a juvenile. Her name was withheld because of her age.
There is no evidence the three were involved in any other fires, Dunham said.
The fire in a rural area 20 miles south of Richmond was not listed among the suspicious church fires the ATF was investigating, apparently because the building had not been regularly used for worship since 1962. That year, the congregation moved to a larger site a few miles away, and the old structure was used for Bible study and special services and events.
The Rev. Wilson E. Shannon, pastor of First Baptist, has said his 800-member congregation plans to rebuild as soon as it raises the money.
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Chesterfield County Chief of Police Carl Bakerby CNBannounces the arrests Monday of suspects in the April 16 burning of
a historic church in Centralia. (headshots) 2. Odom. 3. Sapp.