Shock at arrest of deputy’s son in black church fires
Authorities said he had no known criminal record. A friend described him as an introverted animal lover who showed no animosity toward any race, and a talented, if frustrated heavy metal guitar player and singer. A fellow musician called him “a really sweet guy.”
But Holden Matthews, the white, 21year-old son of a Louisiana sheriff’s deputy, was behind bars Thursday, accused of torching three century-old African American churches during a 10-day period in and around Opelousas. The city of 16,000 people was set on edge by blazes, which evoked memories of terrorist acts during the civil rights movement.
A fragment of a charred gasoline can, surveillance video that captured what appeared to be his parents’ truck in key locations, debit card records and cellphone tracking techniques led authorities to arrest Matthews on Wednesday evening. But though the arrest affidavit showed how they linked Matthews to the crime, federal, state and local authorities who gathered for a Thursday news conference at the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office weren’t ready to discuss motive.
Eric Rommal, the agent in charge of the New Orleans FBI office, said investigators were still looking into whether the fires were “bias motivated.”
Matthews, who is scheduled for a Monday morning bond hearing, had a defender in Nygyl Bryyn Blackwolf, listed as Nygyl Bryyn among Matthews’ Facebook friends. Blackwolf identified himself as a south Louisiana native, musician, entrepreneur and owner of the independent record label Power Back Productions. In a telephone interview from Los Angeles on Thursday, he described Matthews as a talented, sometimes frustrated musician— upset in recent months after he was told he needed to improve the quality of his recordings — but not a racist or violent person.