Suspect in Louisiana church fires arrested

Three historically black churches in Opelousas, Louisiana burned down in the past two weeks and police suspected it was arson, that someone started the fires. 

Today police arrested Holden Matthews (21) and charged him with three counts of arson. He could get federal hate crime charges. 

Matthews is the son of a sheriff’s deputy, who helped other deputies arrest him. 

Investigators connected a red gas can that was found at one of the churches to a purchase at a Wal-Mart by Matthews’ debit card. Cellphone tower data also showed him in the area of all three fires. 

Officials said Matthews liked “black metal music” that had a history of being associated with church burnings in other parts of the world, and that it could be a motive. 

The NAACP said the fires was domestic terrorism and explained that there is a history of racist attacks against African-American churches. 

https://www.sfgate.com/.../Suspect-arrested-in-suspicious...

https://www.cnn.com/.../louisiana-black-church.../index.html