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Just a week before one of the most high-stakes elections in recent history, a local Mississippi church was torched and vandalized with the name of one of the candidates for president.

The mayor of the town revealed Hopewell Baptist Church was burned and spray painted with the words “VOTE TRUMP,” according to NBC news

The incident is being investigated as a hate crime.

 

“It appears to be a race crime,” Mayor Errick Simmons said in a press conference. “It happened in the 50s, it happened in the 60s. It shouldn’t happen in 2016.”

The mayor went on to condemn the act calling it  a “hateful and cowardly act,” and “an attack on the black community.”

Authorities rushed to the scene at 9:16am on Tuesday, where firefighters discovered the sanctuary engulfed in flames.

No suspects have been named, but Greenville Police Chief Delando Wilson revealed they were talking to a ‘person of interest’ and described the suspect as a ‘local’ resident.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation released a statement saying that are “aware of the situation in Greenville.”

“We are working with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners to determine if any civil rights crimes were committed,” FBI Public Affairs Specialist Brett Carr told the public.

This is a developing story.

SOURCE: NBC

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