A suspect in a two-week string of St. Louis church fires is in custody, authorities said.
David Lopez Jackson, 35, faces arson charges in attacks on two of the churches, and he's a suspect in five others, Metropolitan Police Chief Sam Dotson confirmed on Friday.
Jackson, who has flames tattooed across his collarbone, poured gasoline on the doors of New Life Missionary Baptist Church and Ebenezer Lutheran Church before lighting them aflame, according to the charges. New Life and Ebenezer were the fifth and sixth churches hit.
Forensic evidence linked Jackson to the Ebenezer fire, and surveillance video in the neighborhood of New Life captured footage of his car, Dotson said.
He had a partly full gasoline canister and an empty thermos that smell of gas in his car when he was taken into custody, Dotson said.
New Life Pastor David Triggs was "overjoyed" after learning of the arrest on Friday afternoon, and he praised the different churches, community groups and law enforcement agencies that banded together during the investigation.
"It just really showed the power of brotherhood," Triggs said.
The fires began on October 8 when the side door at Bethel Non Denominational Church in Jennings was doused with a flammable liquid and set ablaze.
The first six churches — Bethel, New Northside Baptist Church, St. Augustine Catholic Church, New Testament Church of Christ, New Life Church and Ebenezer — were all within about three miles of one another.…