The Burke County Sheriff’s Office is looking for a man suspected of trespassing on the property of a church with a primarily Black congregation and spreading raw cotton on the front steps.
The man “is wanted for questioning regarding an incident involving trespassing and inappropriate activity,” according to a New Year’s Eve social media post from the sheriff’s office. It’s not clear what charges he could face, and the sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to requests for more information Thursday.
Officials did not say when the incident took place, but the sheriff’s office released a flyer Tuesday with a photo of the man and a car. The church is off Old Waynesboro Road, south of Augusta, though officials did not specify what church was targeted.
Photos taken from the church’s security cameras appear to show a man with a beard carrying a large handful of cotton up a ramp to the building, where the sheriff’s office said he “littered raw field cotton onto the porch steps.” Another photo shows the suspect’s car, a red Ford Mustang with a body style manufactured between 1994 and 2005.