Feds charge man they say threatened to burn black church

Federal authorities have arrested a North Carolina man who threatened to burn down a black church in Virginia.

63-year-old John Malcolm Bareswill of Catawba, North Carolina, was arrested Friday on charges relating to his alleged threat to burn down a Baptist church in Virginia Beach, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said.

Court records state Bareswill, the church earlier this week and made racist remarks and threatened to set the church on fire after one of the church leaders took part in a public vigil for George Floyd.

Floyd died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck for more than eight minutes even after he pleaded for air and stopped moving.

Court records did not immediately identify an attorney for Bareswill.