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Security cameras on a Tesla helped the police connect a man with a fire that gutted a Black church.
Authorities say Dushko Vulchev, 44, was filmed removing a wheel from a Tesla near the church in Massachusetts.
Vulchev, 44, faces up to 30 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if found guilty.
A man was arrested Thursday and charged with setting fire to a Black church in Springfield, Massachusetts, after the police used footage from cameras on a Tesla to help connect him to the crime.
Dushko Vulchev, 44, of Maine is awaiting trial, accused of destroying the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Presbyterian Church, which has a predominantly Black congregation, according to a statement from the US Department of Justice.
‘We come from a place of love, not hate,’ says pastor of Springfield church allegedly burned by arsonist
Updated 8:43 PM;
SPRINGFIELD Mayor Domenic Sarno recalls surveying the still-smoldering ashes of the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Presbyterian Church on Dec. 28. He didn’t wonder about too many theories behind the apparent crime.
“I remember immediately thinking: This looks like a hate crime. Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck it’s a duck,” Sarno said on Thursday, hours after a federal hate crimes indictment against Dushko Vulchev was unsealed.
Sarno lauded state, local and federal authorities who investigated the case, which revealed Vulchev’s alleged long-standing hatred of Black people and other racial and ethnic groups.
A Tesla Helped Police Track Down a Hate Crime Suspect Accused of Burning Down a Black Church
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Photo: Frederic J. BROWN / AFP, Getty Images
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In the category of news that is both good but also unsettling: Authorities say a Tesla’s security system recently helped them catch the culprit behind a string of hate crimes.
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