EL MONTE, Calif. (AP) — The FBI and local police are investigating an explosion early Saturday at a Los Angeles-area church that had been the target of protests for its anti-LGTBQ message.
Officers responding around 4:30 a.m. initially thought a vandal had broken the windows of First Works Baptist Church in El Monte, said Lt. Christopher Cano of the city’s police department. Officers then noticed smoke coming from inside, he told reporters at the scene.
“Then we realized that the windows were not smashed, that they had actually blown out from some type of explosion,” Cano said.
No injuries were reported, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller. Officials didn’t immediately detail the extent of the damage inside the church east of downtown Los Angeles.
FBI technicians are working with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad and the El Monte Police Department during the initial investigation, Eimiller said.
She said it was premature to call the incident a hate crime, but “that’s always going to be considered as a theory when a house of worship is attacked.”
Calls to First Works Baptist Church were unanswered Saturday.
Protestors have repeatedly targeted the church headed by Pastor Bruce Mejia, who has condemned same-sex relationships.
A statement on it website says: “We believe that homosexuality is a sin and an abomination which God punishes with the death penalty.”
Mejia’s sermons and the church’s stance were called hate speech during public comments at an El Monte City Council meeting, according to the Mercury News.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit advocacy organization specializing in civil rights litigation, listed the church on its 2019 watch list of “anti-LBGTQ hate groups.”
An online petition by a group called Keep El Monte Friendly that calls for the church to be kicked out of the city had more than 14,000 signatures as of Saturday morning.
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“No injuries were reported, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller. She said it was premature to call the incident a hate crime”. Nope, it cannot be a hate crime if antifa, blm or lgtbq did it, right FBI? Just like Jussie Smollett, who was not charged at all, by the FBI and the Department of No Justice. The ‘Deep State” FBI might as well be disbanded, as the only people they will go after, are innocent people, like in the IRS scandal and the attempted coup against Trump.
What’s the bet, WHEN THEY FIND the scumbag, and its found to be a member of Antifa/BLM, no charges will be forthcoming.
california is the sin capitol of the west and churches and synagogues will be burned and destroyed like the nazis in the night of brken glass.
The LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ Community is just like the other Cults. They along with ANTIFA and BLM always resort to Violence and Intimidation to push their agendas. They ALL should be Crushed!!
The entire leftists movement, is like a cult. ONE they try to crush anyone who tries to leave.