FBI Probing Vandalism of Black Leader’s Church

MORENO VALLEY —  The FBI is looking into the vandalism of a church whose minister has been outspoken about the fatal shooting of Tyisha Miller in Riverside.

Evangelist missionary Edith Rogers, Inland Empire executive director of the Congress of Racial Equality, said she received anonymous death threats by phone after speaking Saturday on a radio broadcast about the Miller case. Early Sunday, vandals shot though a window of the Rose of Sharon Evangelistic Church of God, where Rogers is a missionary.

Although no group has come forward to claim responsibility for the damage, organization leaders on Wednesday alluded to a resurgence of white supremacist groups since the Dec. 28 shooting death of Miller.

The 19-year-old black woman was shot by police while asleep in her disabled car with a gun in her lap.

“What happened to the church was wrong,” said Bernell Butler, the Miller family’s pastor. “We are not going to cease our efforts to seek justice in this case.”

FBI agents said that Rogers’ position as a community leader caused them to question whether she was targeted because of her race. But they added that the incident could be related to the vandalism of other churches and businesses the same night.