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Deputies Investigating Noose Found At Valrico Church

News Channel 8 photo by JOHN WINTERROWD

Antonio Hawkins, pastor of Exciting Faith Alive at Tampa Bay, talks with sheriff's deputies about what he calls a "lynching station'' discovered at the Valrico church.

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TBO.com

Published: March 30, 2009

VALRICO - Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies are investigating a structure at a Valrico church that the pastor calls a "makeshift lynching station."

The object, discovered by church members on Saturday, is made of PVC pipes and propped up by several tires. At the end of the pipe, vines were bent into a circular shape resembling a noose.

Antonio Hawkins, the pastor of Exciting Faith Alive at Tampa Bay, said he saw the structure about 11:30 a.m. Sunday when he stepped out a side door during church services.

"Immediately, chills just ran down my body," Hawkins said. "To me, this is what I would describe as a lynching station."

Hawkins took the structure down because he said he did not want to alarm the members of the predominantly black congregation. He rebuilt the structure on Monday and called the sheriff's office to show it to them.

For the people who originally built the structure, Hawkins said he hopes, "God will touch your hearts and instincts to make this situation better."

After a preliminary investigation, deputies disassembled the structure and have ruled the incident as a trespassing, sheriff's office spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

Hawkins said the church moved to the Valrico location in October. Before Exciting Faith Alive's arrival, the buildings on the property were used by a congregation that was mostly white, Hawkins said.

The pastor said vandals have struck his church in recent months, taking doorknobs off and pulling light fixtures out of the ground. Hawkins said he did not call authorities after those incidents.

The non-denominational Exciting Faith Alive has about 330 members, the pastor said.

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