White man arrested for potential hate crime at Black church

Source: Anastasiia Stiahailo / Getty

Just days after the triple-murder hate crime in Jacksonville, Florida, we get this…

According to WTAE, a 38-year-old white man named Jeffrey Harris from Ambridge, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh was arrested after attempting to enter a Black church called Greater Dominion Sunday morning. Police were summoned to the scene around 9 a.m. when calls came in reporting that Harris was pointing a long gun at two women on the street outside of the building. If he had arrived just one hour later, Harris would have found the church packed with parishioners.

“When you just think about how close we came to having the same kind of horrific situation that we had at the synagogue in Pittsburgh, it’s like the Grace of God. Thank God for his grace, for his covering over us, because this could have been a total different way,” Crumb said.

Harris was arrested while in possession of a 12-gauge shotgun, 25 rounds of ammunition, and a bag of crystal meth, it is believed that he was prepared to enact a hate crime. Authorities say that he made “multiple bizarre comments” about a dead brother. Harris shared a home with his boyfriend who neighbors say had not been seen recently and a search of the property revealed that it had been booby-trapped with a suspected explosive device, a drilled hole to shoot from, and the porch had been covered with personal lubricant. Police believe Harris was preparing for a standoff after potentially committing a hate crime at Greater Dominion as there was also a “handwritten script” for an active shooting discovered at the home.

When all was said and done, this piece of s#!t was charged with making terroristic threats, aggravated assault, attempted burglary, and other felonies.