Local

Satanic messages left on church property

NEWNAN, Ga. — Two teens accused of vandalizing a church twice face felony charges, and they could face more charges.
 
The pastor of another church next door said his church was also hit by vandals. He showed Channel 2's John Bachman satanic messages someone left on picnic tables at Christ Presbyterian Church in Newnan.

"Picnic table is two weeks old. They punched a hole in it here. Then, they took a knife and engraved in it, 'Worship satan 666,'" Pastor Jayme Sickert said.

He had bought the tables for children at the church.

"There's a whole lot of things they could've written, but they chose at a church to write satanic things. To me, that's troubling," Sickert said.

A church member discovered the tables and the playground damaged two weeks ago.

On Wednesday, Coweta County Sheriff's investigators arrested a 15- and 16-year-old accused of damaging Mills Chapel Baptist next door.

"These same individuals, we learned through their interviews, had done some bad things to the church before, vandalized it again," Major James Yarbrough said.

He said the boys used a rock to break the glass in a front door. Once inside, they painted profanity and "Smoke crack worship satan 666," according to the investigative report.

"The price of these things is negligible. They weren't that much, but it's the future of those kids that's more important," Sickert said.

Investigators said they identified the boys from surveillance video at the church. They are charged as juveniles. Detectives are also talking to a third teenage suspect.