A diabolical plot was foiled recently by by police when a Gainsville, Georgia 17-year old white teenager planned to kill members of a predominately black church.
Caitlyn Pye, now 17, was arrested last fall after authorities foiled her plan to stab worshippers at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The girl was identified as Caitlyn “Karen” Pye, who was 16 at the time of her arrest had hatched a plan to kill members of a AME church but was caught by school resource officers after her classmates revealed that she kept a notebook of plans on how she planned to execute her murderous plot. Police revealed that Pye was a follower of Dyann Roof, the racist who was convicted of killing 9 black members of an AME church in South Carolina. He was later sentenced to life in prison for his heinous crimes.
Gainesville High School administrators learned of the plot last November after Pye’s classmates told them she had a notebook containing “detailed plans to commit murder” at the church, authorities said. Drawings found in the notebook indicated the plot had been in the works for several weeks, according to police.
School officials searched Pye’s bookbag and found a purple-and-white notebook and two T-shirts, according to assistant district attorney Julia Greene. One T-shirt had “natural selection” written on the front, the other had “Free Dylann Storm Roof” and swastikas drawn on each arm, Greene said.
Roof shot and killed nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
“On the back of the shirt were several writings including, ‘I’m not crazy I had to do this,’” Greene said. “’I had to do it because somebody had to do something, because Black people are killing White people every day on the streets. What I did is still miniscule compared to what they’re doing to White people every day. I do consider myself a White supremacist.’”
The administrators notified school resource officers, who launched an investigation and arrested the teen. She had an extensive knife collections where she planned to use it on members of the church when she was arrested by police.
In a negotiated plea deal that didn’t receive the blessing of church leaders, Pye was sentenced as a juvenile and is only required to remain in a facility until the age of 21 and will be on probation for 10-years after she is released.
The disparity in how she was sentenced compared to many others, especially people of color shows how far we still need to go to receive equity in the criminal justice system when it relates to people of color.
Someone might want to investigate the judge who sentenced Pye to this sweetheart of a deal. Just saying.
Source: Associated Press/Gainsville Times
