Mississippi church suing over COVID-19 restrictions burns down [View all]

A church in Mississippi was destroyed by a suspected arson fire, about a month after its pastor filed a lawsuit challenging the city of Holly Springs on gathering restrictions amid the coronavirus outbreak.

First Pentecostal Church in Holly Springs, Mississippi, burned down Wednesday morning, news outlets reported. When investigators from the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office got to the scene, they found graffiti in the church parking lot that read: “Bet you stay home now you hypokrites.”

“We’ve kind of racked our brains and we have no idea,” Jerry Waldrop, the pastor of the church, said. “No enemies that we know of. We don’t know anyone that we even think could be capable of doing something like this.”

Waldrop had filed a lawsuit against the city of Holly Springs last month, alleging police officers had disrupted a church bible study and Easter service. Holly Springs City Attorney Shirley Byers said nearly 40 parishioners inside the church building were not practicing social distancing on April 10 when a violation citation was issued for the church.

Read more: https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2020/05/22/holly-springs-church-suing-over-covid-19-restrictions-burns-down/5248349002/