A Georgian white girl aged 17 pleaded guilty on Thursday to scheming a knife attack on Black church devotees. The teenager was sentenced to serve in juvenile detention until she turns 21, the maximum sentence.
Guilty For Plot to Kill Black Churchgoers
The teen issued an emotional apology in court on Thursday for plotting to initiate a killing on the small, predominantly Black church in November.
According to Caitlyn Pye while reading her notes, "I am truly sorry for what I've done. I want to let you know it was a mistake," reported The USA Express.
She would begin her probation spanning to 10 years that forbid her from getting close to Gainesville's Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the entity she schemed an attack on.
Authorities pointed out that the teenage girl's cooked up killing plan was discovered when a high school classmate heard about it and disclosed to a staff member in November.
Pye, who was 16 when she was taken into custody, pleaded guilty to one count of attempted murder for her plot to stab churchgoers at the church mentioned above because of their race. She is also prohibited from being close to AME churches in Georgia or reaching out to all AME churches, reported Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
According to authorities, Gainesville High School administrators were made aware of the plot in November following Pye's classmates disclosing that she kept a notebook filled with "detailed plans to commit murder" at the church. Police officials stated drawings in the pages indicated the plot had been mounted for many weeks.
For ten years, Pye will undertake probation and is imposed to stay at least 150 feet (about 45 meters) from AME churches during the duration. She was also ordered to undergo counseling.
In November 2019, according to Gainesville Police Chief Jay Parrish, Gainesville High School administrators, students, and law officers had cooperated together to thwart the probable devastating incident.
The foiled plot is identical to the scheme initiated by Dylann Roof at South Carolina's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church five years earlier.
According to congregants, established over a century ago, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church has over 40 members.
The Georgian teenager's sentence also imposes an apology letter to AME.
In a statement issued, according to Bishop Reginald Jackson, the presiding prelate of the Sixth Episcopal District of the AME Church covering Georgia, "while we are angered and frustrated by this incident, we do not hold hostility against this defendant. While she apparently hates or hated us, we do not hate her, and do not wish to nullify her future, and do not give up on her," reported CNN.
A thorough search of her bag unveiled two knives and T-shirts. One t-shirt had the words "free Dylann Storm Roof" with swastikas. In 2015, Roof was the suspect who massacred nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina. He was sentenced to death in 2017.
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