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Jesus: “Turn the other cheek.”
Tony Spell: “Imma run this bitch over.”
The Tony Spell saga continues to get more and more outlandish, as authorities said Monday that the megachurch pastor who has continuously violated Louisiana’s stay-at-home order is now facing criminal charges for driving a church bus backward toward a protester outside the church.
#BREAKING Central Pastor Tony Spell has a warrant out for his arrest for an incident with a protestor that happened on Sunday. Watch below. ⬇️ ⬇️⬇️ @BRProudNews pic.twitter.com/mEaSJkPpt5
— Abbi Rocha Laymoun (@AbbiRochaTV) April 20, 2020
(Never did I think I’d be on Spell’s side, but a potential felony? For this?)
This actually, in terms of law, is the definition of Vehicular Assault. Assault is intentionally putting another in reasonable fear of harmful contact. It seems pretty clear cut this is exactly what the driver was intending. Should he hit him it becomes assault and battery.
— Scottie Smith (@Scottie) April 21, 2020
According to The Washington Post, Central Police Chief Roger Corcoran said police have a warrant for Spell’s arrest and he is wanted on a charge of aggravated assault related to the bus incident.
According to Corcoran, Spell was driving a bus and backed it up on the shoulder of the road, stopping the vehicle within a few feet of a protester. A parishioner is also facing charges for swerving his car toward a protester. No one was hurt in either incident.
“He was trying to intimidate the protester,” Corcoran said. He said police reviewed video of the incident, which local television outlets aired.
[Related: Tony Spell Challenges Parishioners To Donate Stimulus Checks To Church]
Spell reportedly wrote in a text message that he refuses to surrender and that authorities would have to drag him out of his Baton Rogue church.
“I approached a man who verbally assaulted my wife and little girls. He’s a crotch-grabbing, middle-finger using against my church ladies,” Spell wrote in a text message. “What would you do to a man like that?”
Spell is wearing the potential crime like a red badge of courage.
“This is the proudest day of my life to be persecuted for the faith,” he wrote in a text message.
The pastor will have to bring in a lawyer off the bench, seeing as his current one has pneumonia in both lungs and is hooked up to oxygen after attending a couple of Spell’s services and contracting COVID-19.
[h/t The Washington Post]