A Texas teen has been arrested for a Halloween night synagogue fire, ABC News reported on Monday, November 15, 2021 (read story here, more details here).
Prosecutors charged Franklin Barrett Sechriest (photo, left), 18, with intentionally setting a fire at Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue in Austin that caused about $25,000 of damage.
He and his vehicle were recorded on surveillance video, and a search of his car turned up “ingredients for Molotov cocktails” and swastika-bearing anti-Semitic handouts. News reports say he kept written journals that alluded to setting a synagogue on fire.
For details of how he was identified and caught, go here.
If he’s found guilty in a court of law, this young man has screwed up his life. He was a student at Texas State University and a Texas National Guard recruit. Now, he has prison to look forward to, and after serving time, trying to get a decent job as an ex-felon.
It’s hard to understand why a young person would throw away his future this way. What a waste. I guess that’s what blind, irrational, unthinking hate does to feeble minds.