John Malcolm Bareswill charged with threatening to burn New Hope Baptist Church

A white North Carolina man was arrested Friday after he allegedly called a black congregation’s church in Virginia Beach and threatened to set it on fire.

The associate minister of the New Hope Baptist Church told WAVY-TV that the church received a call about 11 a.m. last Sunday and that a congregant answered. That member then placed the call on speaker phone so another member could hear it, according to federal court records.

The anonymous caller then said, “You [racial slur] need to shut your mouth. We are going to burn the church,” Associate Minister James Allen said.

Virginia Beach police investigated and tracked the call to the phone of John Malcolm Bareswill, 63, who lives in Catawba, N.C., according to an affidavit filed Friday by FBI Special Agent Alex L. Cava.

Cava said Bareswill owns a package delivery service in Virginia Beach.

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The FBI and Virginia Beach police spoke with Bareswill, who denied making the call to the church and said he was asleep when the call was made. Cava’s affidavit said phone records showed the call was made from Bareswill’s phone and that someone had searched the Internet with queries such as “Black Lives Matter protest held in Virginia” and a search for predominantly African American churches.

Bareswill was arrested Friday morning and charged with the federal crime of making a telephonic threat to use fire to kill, injure or intimidate any individual, or unlawfully to damage or destroy a building. He was scheduled to make his first court appearance Friday afternoon.

“Threats meant to silence or intimidate people because of their race or religion, like the one allegedly made here, have our highest priority," said U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger. “No one should be made to fear for their safety or the safety of their church for speaking out, and we will seek justice for victims of those who allegedly violate that right.”

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