This week a Georgia teen accused of plotting to attack a predominantly Black church in 2019, issued an apology in court before being sentenced to four years in a juvenile facility and probation.
According to CNN, the young woman’s plot eerily resembled the one carried out by Dylann Roof at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina five years ago.
Fortunately, authorities intercepted her plans and she was arrested last November before being able to carry the attack at the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Gainesville, Georgia.
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“I’m truly sorry for what I’ve done,” the now 17-year-old said in a statement in court Thursday. She read it after pleading guilty to one count of criminal attempt to commit a felony.
As part of her plea agreement, the teen will be sent to the Department of Juvenile Justice until she turns 21 and then face 10 years of probation.
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church was started over fifty years ago. Hall County Assistant District Attorney Julia Greene explained the potential massacre plot came undone when a student at Gainesville High School overheard the teenager talking about her plans and alerted a principal who notified a school resource officer.
Greene went on to outline how the student kept a notebook in which she wrote about hurting people at a Black church. In her backpack, the teen had two T-shirts, one of which said, “Free Dylann Storm Roof,” and had swastikas drawn on the sleeves. “I do believe myself to be a white supremacist” was written on the other side of one of the shirts, Greene added.
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Bishop Reginald T. Jackson, the presiding prelate of the Sixth Episcopal District of the AME Church covering Georgia, responded in a statement, “while we are angered and frustrated by this incident, we do not hold hostility against this defendant. While she apparently hates or hated us, we do not hate her, and do not wish to nullify her future, and do not give up on her.”
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