Overview
- Stephen Spencer Pittman, 19, is in federal custody on an arson charge under 18 U.S.C. 844(i) and also faces a state first-degree arson count with a hate-crime enhancement sent to a Hinds County grand jury.
- An FBI affidavit says Pittman confessed, called the site a “synagogue of Satan,” and said he targeted it for its “Jewish ties,” with surveillance footage, a burned phone, a hand torch, Life360 data, and texts to his father cited as evidence.
- The pre-dawn fire heavily damaged Beth Israel’s library and administrative offices, destroyed two Torah scrolls, and left additional scrolls smoke-damaged, though no injuries were reported.
- Investigators say Pittman sustained burns consistent with a gasoline-fueled blaze, sought treatment at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and was identified after his father reported a confession.
- Local churches offered space for services as the congregation pauses use of the building, and civil-rights and Jewish groups condemned the attack, which echoes a 1967 KKK bombing at the same synagogue; the federal charge carries a potential five to 20 years in prison.