An Ohio man, 20-year-old Aimenn Penny, has been arrested and indicted on federal hate crime charges after firebombing The Community Church of Chesterland in Geauga County, OH according to a report from Cleveland.com. Penny, who had been sitting at home watching online videos of drag queen story events in France, became inspired to seek out targets closer to home for his attack.

Penny, a member of White Lives Matter Ohio, drove 50 miles to the church with homemade Molotov cocktails and hurled them at the building. It was an attempt to prevent the church from hosting a drag event the following week. According to court records his only regret was that the church did not burn to the ground.

This is all a part of an alarming spike in white supremacist activity in Ohio and a growing problem of domestic hate groups here in the US.

Jonathan Lewis, a researcher at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, told Cleveland.com, “It paints a really disturbing picture of the state of domestic terrorism and domestic violent extremism in this country. I think that the case that was recently brought in in Ohio is, unfortunately, a really good indicator of the types of violent extremism bubbling to the surface today.”

This is not the first time the Community Church has received threats for their support for the LGBTQ+ community and their rights, but according to Reverend Jess Peacock “It took a major turn” with this latest attack. 

“I pulled into the parking lot and I saw burn marks up the side of our church," Peacock explained but saying that they would not be deterred, "To shut this down, what message do we send to people who are eager for this, who want this, who desire this in this county?”

“There hasn’t been a day or two where I have not received hate messages from my personal phone,” Peacock added. “We hold no ill will against this man whatsoever. We forgive this individual. But we do want this individual to be prosecuted to the fullest extent. Just to send a message and have them think twice about attacking a synagogue, a church or a mosque. We want to see peace, not violence,”

Despite threats sent to the church the drag celebration went on without violence. Law enforcement was present for the events, which included bomb-detecting police K-9s. Event organizers said they personally paid for enhanced security measures.