‘Vile and hateful’ letter sent to African-American church in North Carolina, cops say
A letter with “vile and hateful language” was sent to a predominately African-American church in North Carolina, officials say.
The three-page document was typed and unsigned when it arrived at St. Andrew’s AME Zion Church in Wilmington, the city’s police department said Wednesday in a news release.
Now, “the case is being treated as a hate crime,” officials announced at a press conference held in conjunction with the New Hanover County NAACP.
The letter was delivered Sunday, bringing dismay to many people in the congregation, according to The Rev. Dorian Daniels.
“We don’t stand for hate, and we will not back down, he told McClatchy News.
Wilmington’s police chief echoed that sentiment and denounced the content of the letter, according to the news release.
“There’s no place in our society [for] a letter like that with the language and disgusting rhetoric that we should be beyond,” he said.
The release didn’t reveal the exact contents of the letter but said it “contained vile and hateful language directed at African Americans” in the Wilmington area.
Now, officers say they are trying to determine where the letter came from.
Police have also “increased patrols around all churches in the area,” which is near the coast, according to the news release.
The measures come after nine people were killed in a 2015 mass shooting at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
