Man admits he set fires at majority Black church because of ‘race, color, religion’ Kevin Colantonio prepared to plead guilty to igniting blazes outside Rhode Island’s Shiloh Gospel Temple in February.
Kevin Colantonio, 36, ignited the blazes around Shiloh Gospel Temple’s exterior in North Providence during the early morning of 11 February because of the “race, color, religion, national origin and/or ethnicity of the congregants there”, according to a plea agreement filed on 20 December.
A Rhode Island man is prepared to plead guilty on 7 January to lighting several fires just outside a predominantly Black church nearly a year earlier, federal court documents show.
After authorities zeroed in on Colantonio as a suspect in the case, they searched his home and seized notebooks as well as writings containing the phrases “burn churches down to the ground”, “hunt them down” and “gun everyone down who isn’t white”, among others, Rhode Island’s US attorney Zachary Cunha later said.
Colantonio was charged with buying a pocket lighter as well as gasoline at a local convenience store and then setting several fires right outside Shiloh Gospel Temple.
