On New Year’s Day, police officers in Crestline, a village near Mansfield in Central Ohio, received a call from a passerby who observed an object on fire behind Holy Redeemer Independent Old Catholic Church.
According to the police report obtained by The Buckeye Flame, officers arrived at the church around 6:30 p.m. and found a charred Pride flag and an Ole Smoky Tennessee Whiskey bottle in an alley east of the church.
Police reported that the whiskey bottle had been used as an “incendiary device (Molotov)” to destroy the Pride flag.
The officers wrote in the report that they knew the flag had been flying on the church’s flagpole, and found that the rope to the pole had been cut. They found footprints in the snow coming from the north, then traveling south, then back north.
Officers spoke to a nearby business owner and residences, but no suspects were seen and nearby cameras did not capture any relevant footage.
Crestline Police confirmed to The Buckeye Flame that they have effectively closed the case as there was no more evidence to collect.
Reward Offered
The Rev. Anthony Capretta, the church’s pastor, sent out a press release Monday offering a $5,000 reward to help catch the culprits.
In the release, Capretta called the incident “a hate crime directed at the LGTBQ+ community and reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan cross burnings.”
Because Ohio Revised Code does not include legal protection from hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity, it is not an anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime to steal or vandalize an LGBTQ+ Pride flag. However, perpetrators might be charged with vandalism, theft, arson or property damage – and some incidents may even meet the threshold for ethnic intimidation.
Anyone having information regarding this crime is asked to contact the Crestline Police
Department at 419-683-2222 or the Federal Bureau of Investigation at 216-522-1400.
The Rev. Ben Huelskamp, executive director of LGBTQ+ affirming Christian advocacy group LOVEBoldy, denounced the arson, while praising places of worship that fly Pride flags.
“Churches and other places of worship speak volumes by displaying Pride flags,” said Huelskamp.“They not only communicate their own values of affirmation and inclusion, but signal to their community that religion can create safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people.”
New data places Ohio among states with the highest number of anti-LGBTQ+ incidents in the country in 2025.
GLAAD’s ALERT Desk tracked 50 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents in Ohio, the fourth-highest in the nation – behind only California, New Hampshire and Texas.
Ohio’s incidents included three arson attempts, two threats of mass shootings against LGBTQ+ people and multiple propaganda drops by white supremacist organizations like Patriot Front and White Lives Matter. 🔥
IGNITE ACTION
- Anyone having information regarding this crime is asked to contact the Crestline Police Department at 419-683-2222 or the Federal Bureau of Investigation at 216-522-1400.
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