CHS was kind enough to forward us a police report that was recently released to the media by SPD. The heavily redacted document describes a threat of violence made against a pastor of a church in the Central District, made by a 47 year old member of the governing board of the church.
The issue started during a board meeting held on March 5th, when the topic of a lease came up for discussion. One of the board members received money from this lease, and when the pastor mentioned that the deal is contrary to the church’s bylaws and constitution, that unnamed board member made a threat to “Bust up” the pastor. The man had to be physically restrained by other board members while he continued to threaten to “Bust up” the pastor after the meeting or out on the street if he happened to see him later.
The report says that the pastor took these threats very seriously and feels that the suspect could carry them out.
Neither witnesses nor the suspect were contacted prior to the report being written, so it’s not clear if there was any followup actions taken by police.