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Police arrest woman caught on camera pouring flammable liquid on church

2 years 5 months 2 weeks ago Sunday, November 07 2021 Nov 7, 2021 November 07, 2021 3:26 PM November 07, 2021 in News
Source: WBRZ

UPDATE: Police arrested 58-year-old Lizzie Baines for attempted arson of a religious building Sunday after pouring flammable liquid on several church vans and The Oasis church building Wednesday. 

Read the original story below:

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BATON ROUGE - Security video shows a woman dousing the doors of the Oasis Christ Church youth building with a suspicious liquid around 3 a.m. Wednesday.

"Whatever you can imagine gasoline smelling like," said church administrator Shalonda Golden. "It was a strong smell of that. Even hours after she was gone we could still smell it through the building."

The woman is seen again on security footage sometime later that morning pouring liquid on the doors and sidewalks to the main building.

"She didn't set a match that we saw on camera but just the intent behind it is scary because of what could have been," Golden said.

Church members say they're thankful there was no fire. Even so, Golden was stunned to see the video and smell the suspicious odor days later.

The Baton Rouge Fire Department is investigating and working to figure out exactly what happened while police are searching for who is responsible.

Bishop Charles Wallace is questioning why the woman picked his church.

"We're just trying to find out who it was and why they did it," Wallace said. "Hopefully we can get that person off the streets."

Oasis Christian Church says they're upping security protocols. Church members spent the past few days working to get rid of the smell of gasoline.

This case remains under investigation. Anyone with any information is asked to contact Baton Rouge Police.

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