Suspected Church Arsonists in East Texas CAUGHT!

Posted: Feb 21, 2010 5:49 PM CST

The following was released by the Texas Department of Public Safety:

EAST TEXAS - Authorities have charged and arrested two men in connection with one of the 10 church arson fires that occurred in East Texas beginning on Jan. 1, 2010. Three other churches were targets of attempted break-ins, and investigators believe those and the remaining nine burned churches are also connected to these men. The investigations are ongoing.

The two men arrested are Jason Robert Bourque, 19, of Lindale and Daniel George McAllister, 21, of Ben Wheeler. They had attended the First Baptist Church in Ben Wheeler together. Bourque was arrested without incident in Van Zandt County and transported to Smith County and McAllister was arrested without incident by Texas Rangers in San Antonio and also transported to Smith County.

"By working closely with our local and federal partners, we brought tremendous resources to this investigation, working around the clock, and culminating in these arrests. The arsons of these houses of worship were despicable and cowardly acts, and Texas won't stand for this kind of criminal activity," said Steven C. McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.

"Clearly this effort shows that Texas law enforcement has mastered the art and science of working together, sharing information, and dedicating the necessary resources to bring cases such as these to a successful resolution, and these officers are to be commended," McCraw said.

The men were arrested by the task force created to find these individuals and stop these arsons. The task force includes hundreds of local law enforcement officers, more than 200 personnel from the DPS, including Texas Rangers, Highway Patrol troopers and Criminal Investigation Division agents, fixed-wing and helicopter aviation assets and the DPS Communications and Fusion Centers, and numerous FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents and specialists. A call to a task force tip line alerted investigators to the two men.

Agencies involved in the arrests included the DPS; FBI; ATF; Tyler Police Department, Henderson County Sheriff's Office and Fire Department; Van Zandt County Sheriff's Office and Fire Department; Wills Point Police Department; Smith County Sheriff's Office, Fire Department and Fire Marshal's Office; Athens Police Department; and the Canton Police Department.

The task force was formed on Jan. 20, and investigators worked cases in a three-county area covering 2,648 square miles and an estimated 713 churches. Investigators from numerous agencies worked together to develop leads, and local agencies assisted with nightly patrols of churches in the area to prevent additional arsons.

Dates and locations of arsons:

01-01-2010, 9:02 AM – Little Hope Baptist Church – Canton, TX;
01-01-2010, 11:05 AM – Faith Baptist Church – Athens, TX;
01-11-2010, 10:40 PM – Grace Community Church, Athens, TX;
01-12-2010, 12:09 AM – Lake Athens Baptist Church, Athens, TX;
01-16-2010, 6:30 PM – Tyland Baptist Church, Tyler, TX;
01-17-2010, 6:33 PM – First Church of Christ Scientist, Tyler, TX;
01-20-2010, 7:37 AM – Prairie Creek Fellowship, Lindale, TX;
02-04-2010, 5:23 AM – Russell Memorial United Methodist Church, Wills Point, TX;
02-08-2010, 8:47 PM – Dover Baptist Church, Tyler, TX;
02-08-2010, 9:44 PM – Clear Springs Missionary Baptist Church, Lindale, TX.

In addition to the arsons at the above listed churches, there were attempted break-ins at the following churches:

02-07-2010, 12:19 AM, Heritage Baptist Church, Tyler, TX;
02-08-2010, 9:19 PM, Clearview Church, Tyler, TX;
02-08-2010, 9:39 PM, Pine Brook Baptist Church, Tyler, TX.

This is what we've been dealing with here in Tyler, and the East Texas area for the last couple of months.  Area churches have been beefing up security and installing cameras, hiring security guards, and using church members as volunteer security.  We haven't heard the whole story behind the reasons for the arson yet.  But I'm glad they've been caught. One of my sons attends the University of Texas at Tyler and I understand that one of these guys does, too.  It was said that they were arrested at their homes without incident, so it appears that they have the right guys.  Our communities have rallied together and been an involved and united front against this attack on God's people.  Our farm is about 8 miles from one of the fires. There is STILL one man on the loose they are looking for. There were 3.
 
I hope they catch this last guy & that that's the end of it.  I was touched by the Sheriff's office statement on TV. After thanking all those involved in the capture, the officer said "most of all, thanks be to God." There are several of these congregations that lost their entire church. But as people of God, they are undaunted. They will re-build. After, the church is NOT a building - it's the family of Christians that worship there. 

Just stuff...

Aunt Amelia has got me all stirred up to change my blog banner.  You never know what that gal is gonna to have on her banner from day to day.  So.... I decided to change mine. I'm tired of lookin' at dead grass and bare trees.  Let's have some flowers and leaves and birds and grass to mow and stuff!

I'm feelin' so much better - thank ya'll for your well wishes. Almost back to normal.  I don't have my bucket with me at work anymore - a simple "slurp" is takin' care of the drainage problem at the present time and I expect the waterworks to dry up just anytime now!

Well, let's see. Daughter is comin' home this weekend, so that'll be nice. Of course, she's bringin' the RAT with her.   Adam is in Hershey, PA, for a gig, then down to Florida, and back through Georgia before they head back to Nashville.  Hope that all goes well and I pray always for safe travel for all.

Remember my little cabbages and broccoli plants I told you I set out?  I'm thinkin', yeah, they're cool/cold weather plants and it gets so stinkin' hot around here so early. So I go ahead and plant 'em.  THEN, comes the hugest snowstorm East Texas has had in 30+ years.  Well, I got all worried about my little plants so here's what I came up with - "make do or do without" type idea.

Can ya see what I did?  I had two rows, so I turned some of my yard chairs upside down to make a top, and covered all my little babies with painters dropcloths and anchored them on the edges with rocks.  I was still worried about 'em with the weight of the snow, but after I kinda shoveled the snow back, they could see daylight again. Those cheap plastic chairs (which I'd like to throw in the dumpster) tore thru the plastic with the heavy snow, but still protected the plants.  I checked on 'em yesterday, and pulled all the plastic and chairs off of 'em, and they were all standin' up just fine and ready to see some sunshine!

You probably can't see 'em but they're there. Ya know, they don't cost much, but I figger, if there's somethin' little I can do to keep 'em from dying, why not? So I did.  I hope they are grateful that I saved their lives.

Well, it's been a struggle to find something to post today, and that's about all I can come up with, so I guess I'll close.  Ya'll keep your dress down and I'll see ya next time!

Sunday Evening Nonsense

Sitting in bed, in my jammies, laptop on lapdesk, eating Reeses minis, loaded up on Robituss*n, aspirin, Benadr*l, Vicks rub all over my chest, & I can't decide whether to hang a bucket around my neck or stuff a tampon up each nostril to stop the steady snot-flow from my nose.  (NOTE:  I looked on the web for pictures of this, and just couldn't post one - you wouldn't believe all the junk that comes along with that subject - oh, yeah, you would, too!) So, suffice it to say that I'm pretty  miserable this weekend!

On a bright note, Tony and I did get out yesterday for just a little bit - he took me to the mall, and surprised me with some diamond stud earrings for Valentine's day!  Isn't he a sweetie!  I had some tiny little "dots" of diamond studs way back when we were first married, but he wanted me to go and pick some  nice-sized ones out! So I did! I didn't know if we really needed to spend the money on something so frivolous right now, but he insisted. I've been wantin' some for quite awhile, but you know there's always something that is way more important than frivolity.  He's so good to me ~ sometimes I don't think I deserve him.  He's always doing nice things for me - even when I'm being a pill.  So I had a VERY nice Valentine's Day!

My oldest son, Adam, sent me some pictures from last week in Nashville.  He is a song-writer as well as a musician. Back in the fall, he and a couple of other writers wrote this song called "The Gospel According to Jones". (George Jones - don't worry, it sounds sacreligious, but it's all about country music)(hey, they don't ask me what I think of their song titles...).  Adam has his own band, and he also plays in a band with Eric Lee Beddingfield. ELB is an up and coming band and Adam plays lead guitar and sings vocals. 

Well, there is a part at the end of the song where they invited George Jones, old  "Possum" himself, to come record with them.  Well, HE DID IT!  He met with them in the recording studio last Monday, I think, and did the recording!  Adam was so excited as were all the band members.  They got to meet and greet George and his lovely wife.  He said they were just  very nice regular folks like you'd run into anywhere.

Adam sent me a few pictures that they took of the ELB band and George and I thought Id like to share them with you...can you guess which one is Adam?

Adam is third from the left.  This is the Eric Lee Beddingfield band. Eric is the big guy in the middle. Good looking group if I do say so myself.  A couple more shots of Adam being Adam - he's always a clown and always cuttin' up, but he's always fun to be around...

There's no telling what he was saying or doing to Eric - just no telling.  I wish I could be a fly on the wall when they are in the studio.  I'm sure its a hoot!

Well, I've been able to do a little visitin' around today. I'm trying to get around to everybody.  It's been nice to have some time to do that. I have to go to work tomorrow, cold or no cold. I do not have a back-up.  At least I work in an office by myself so I can keep away from other people.  I'll take my arsenal of medicines and my bucket with me, and hopefully, in a few days I'll be feeling better.  I hope you all have a great week, no snow, and remember to keep your dress down!

SNOW!

Just had to show ya'll some snow photos. I know we're all sick of snow, but we haven't had snow like this since back in the 70's, I think ... Debbie at Of His Pasture can rub it in a little bit now that we're getting some. haha! First a few of the farm - we went into work at noon, so I hightailed it out the farm to get some pics! This may not happen again for another 30 years!

Now, then, I'll do a few from our neighborhood at home... K?

Played with this last 'un a little bit. Enhanced the colors. The values were there but not quite that much color.  So, there's my snow pictures. I took 124 but I thought I'd spare ya'll.  You folks up north probably are tired of looking at this stuff. I'm tired of the cold, but it was nice to see this amount of snow.  It'll be gone tomorrow as it's spose to get up in the midi-50's'...  Ya'll take care now, ya hear?

SNOW!!! and other stuff

Can you believe this?

This is what we woke up to this morning. A rarity around here in east Texas. It swooped through the Metroplex and it's still coming down even at 10:00 a.m. here at my office. Man, it's practically a blizzard! The roads are not frozen so we're okay. They might tonight if it gets below freezing, but we'll see.

On the way to work this morning, I swung through some country roads. It's always prettier in the country...

I'm really glad I went to the farm yesterday evening and covered my little broccoli and cabbage plants!  It's a redneck version of flower blankets. I turned my old metal lawn chairs upside down and put 'em between the rows, and then covered that whole stretch (about 35') with painters drop cloths and anchored 'em down on the edges with iron ore rocks.  In the country, you make do or do without ya know...  I hope those little plants make it. It's just about 32 degrees right now.  They might get cold, but at least they won't be gettin'wet or icy.

New topic -  Here's my garden all tilled up for this year.  We had about a 35' x 55' plot for the last two years, and we added another 12' x 20' specifically for corn this year. It's where it will get more direct sun all day. We added it kinda whonky-jawed to one side, cuz my hubby had transplanted an oak tree to the side of the main garden and we had to work around that.  Plus, this year, we're going to lay PVC pipe all around the garden to keep it watered. In the past we've had to set up sprinklers or do it all by hand which usually took at least an hour or two to do.

Here's my onions. They're about 6"-8" tall right now.

Here's either broccoli or cabbage. When they're this little, it's hard to tell them apart - at least for me.

My garden shed. I love my garden shed. It's a hunnerd years old probably, but Tony and our carpenter friend jacked it up and made some repairs and put in a new floor and it's super. I'd rather have this 'un than a new one anyday.  I've often thought of white-washing it or yellow-washing it, but I can't decide. What do ya'll think? Should I leave it just as it is?  All rustic-y and weathered?  I like it this way, too... We're gonna run water to it so I can use my old washtub and rinse my vegetables an' stuff.

The above picture may be disturbing and graphic for some. Caution is advised. Look away if you are horrified. There's 4-5 of my gopher traps on the left in this pic with which I maim and kill innocent little rodents with big hairy teeth that tear up my yard.  It's almost gopher season again!  Will have to re-set my counter on the sidebar...  

I wonder if there's a good recipe for gophers?  Man, I never thought of that!  We really could become self-sufficient on our farm with 75 acres and gophers running amok all under the surface!  All the gophers we could ever want and our garden, MAN!   Gopher stew or... hey I know --- Gopher Kabobs!  Skewer a gopher, some onion and bell peppers and wrap it all in some smoked bacon and I bet you'd have a doozy of a Kabob!  Maybe throw a little jalapeno pepper on there too, a wedge of Monterrey Jack or mozzerella????  My mouth is watering already!  Maybe chicken friend gopher!  With some gopher grease gravy & onions over mashed 'taters & greens! 

Ok, have I run you off yet?   If not, please continue...  sorry I get carried away sometimes... more junk in the shed...

Cool wooden boxes from the lumber yard that I haven't decided what to do with yet.

Shutters for future projects - they make great shelves and window boxes!

This is my thrifty nifty aluminum weather stripping container that I got at a garage sale. It's all wood and has slots on the top that I can drop my garden tools down into. It's so cool. It was once in a lumber yard, I don't know where, but it's worked out very nicely! My husband thought I'd really lost it when I came home with this - now he likes it!

Last, but certainly not least -  here's hard evidence that spring is right around the corner. The daffodils are coming up as well as my tulips.  They may freeze this weekend with the snow, but hopefully they are hardy and will make it!  I'm so excited to see them.  The paperwhites have already bloomed and faded. The quince is blooming right now, too, but I didn't get a picture.

Well, hope you enjoyed my random post this morning. Take care all you northerners in the snow. Ya'll had quite a storm up there in the northeast. Hunker down & stay warm, and as always, keep yer dress down!