THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 20, 1996 TAG: 9606200390
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WHITEVILLE LENGTH: 52 lines
Two black men were arrested Wednesday and charged in an arson fire last month at a predominantly black church in Columbus County.
Rodney Bullock, 21, of Fairbluff, and Curtis Gilbert Jr., 32, of Winnebow, are charged with burning a building they were remodeling at Mount Tabor Baptist Church in Cerro Gordo on May 23.
Bullock is charged with one count of unlawful burning of a church; Gilbert is charged with conspiracy to commit arson. The suspects were being questioned Wednesday afternoon before being taken before a magistrate, and were scheduled to make a court appearance today on the felony counts.
``There's absolutely no evidence of racial motivation for this fire,'' said Greg Rideout, a spokesman for Attorney General Mike Easley.
Columbus County Sheriff Jimmy Ferguson said Gilbert is a contractor hired to remodel a former school on the church grounds for use as an education building. Bullock was Gilbert's employee, said the sheriff, who declined to discuss a possible motive for the arson.
Ferguson said an anonymous tip the day after the fire led authorities to the suspects.
``We had to make sure that we were looking at the right people, get more information,'' Ferguson said in explaining the delay between the tip and the arrests. ``Then, we were trying to decide whether we were going to charge them through the state or through the federal government.''
Meanwhile, in neighboring Robeson County, authorities ruled out racism as a motive in the arson on another black church. Billy Shawn Baxley, 17, who is white, was arrested Tuesday on a church-burning charge.
Baxley, a volunteer firefighter with the East Howellsville Fire Department, confessed to igniting the May 24 blaze at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, said William Bryan, assistant fire chief and president of the department's board of directors.
District Attorney Johnson Britt said Wednesday that racism was not a motive.
On Tuesday, state Attorney General Mike Easley said arson had been ruled out in a fire that destroyed a black church in Pender County.
Easley said an investigation of the fire at Hills Chapel Baptist Church in Rocky Point showed a problem in a wiring supply circuit leading to four florescent light fixtures in the church's ceiling. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A contractor's sign stands on the grounds of Mount Tabor Baptist
Church in Cerro Gordo, where remodeling was being done.
KEYWORDS: BLACK CHURCHES FIRES ARSON
ARREST by CNB