Pat Ehat
Posted on 11/01/2010 8:51:23 AM PDT by Colofornian
South Salt Lake police Sunday arrested a man in connection with fires that damaged two LDS meetinghouses over the weekend.
Patrick Ehat, 26, of Salt Lake City, was arrested and booked into the Salt Lake County jail on suspicion of arson, burglary and criminal mischief, said South Salt Lake police Detective Gary Keller.
“He did take responsibility for the church fires,” Keller said. “We haven’t established a motive at this time. It’s still under investigation. ... We’re just glad we have this person off the street and people can feel safe in their communities.”
South Salt Lake firefighters put out two blazes at Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouses Saturday morning. The first fire destroyed a chapel in the building at 3219 S. 300 East about 3:30 a.m.
Damage was reported to exceed $1 million.
Three hours later, firefighters were called to an LDS church at 2702 S. Main. The fire caused minor smoke and water damage to the building.
Keller said Ehat had injuries consistent with climbing through a broken window. Police believe he acted alone.
Ehat’s parents, Stephen and Jeanine Ehat, said they have had limited contact with their son in recent months. They have cooperated with law enforcement in the arson investigation, the couple said in a written statement.
The couple can’t speculate about their son’s motive, but believe “medical professionals will assess his mental health,” they wrote, and are grieved at the damage caused.
Investigators are still trying to determine what caused a fire at a vacant South Salt Lake home less than an hour after the second LDS church was set ablaze, police said.
Bishop Matt Parson, of the Miller Ward, the congregation that meets in the building on 300 East, said he does not know Ehat.
A ward directory lists a Pat Ehat as a member.
Sunday services for ward members took place in another meetinghouse, Parson said.
“I know it was challenging for some people because the building has been special to us for so long,” Parson said. “We’ve all shared special experiences there and to have it destroyed that way would be hard for anyone.”
Parson hopes the arrest brings “closure” to the incident.
“It’s nice not having to just wonder who did it,” he said. “We’ll move on. They’ll rebuild or repair [the building] and it will be better than it was before.”
afalk@sltrib.com
From the article: Bishop Matt Parson, of the Miller Ward, the congregation that meets in the building on 300 East, said he does not know Ehat. A ward directory lists a Pat Ehat as a member.
No, it was the LDS church fire in Mukilteo, Wa where some nasty FReepers cast suspicion on anti-Mormonism Freepers.
I just checked and no updates on that fire yet that I can find.
Ok then, I apologize for waiting for an apology.
Well either way, it will be a very long wait.
What’s the point of this thread again? I see none.
“What’s the point of this thread again? I see none.”
I think the point of this thread was to show that a Mormon church fire was started by a...gasp...Mormon.
What’s the point of your question? I see none.
Pat Ehat
Ok, I am changing my comment to you.
It seems a normal response would be “glad they caught the perp, to bad he was a member of the ward”.
Also interesting is the speculation that Ehat may have recently been ex-communicated from LDS...you may want to wait this one out for a bit...magritte
Excommunications are very detrimental to the emotional state of individuals and can have horrendous and lifelong debilitating repercussions.
If Mormons excommunicated this individual it adds detail to the story. Perhaps Mormonism will learn a thing or two about handling the emotional state of its members and ex-members. For now, learning that this might have been in response to an excommunication would simply make it that much more tragic.
I think the point of this thread was to show that a Mormon church fire was started by a...gasp...Mormon.
alllrighty then... so?
He looks angry. A wee bit scary even.
It's real simple.
We've had two threads here, one about the murder of the Visalia Lds bishop, and one about another arson involving an Lds facility, where a Mormon and a man with Mormon family ties, suggested that a FREEPER may have been involved. That Mormon got zotted for such a suggestion.
Secondly, you've got...
...hypersensitive flash-in-the-pan other Lds zotted ones like wannabe apologist, G. West,
who was booted from FReeperville for spamming to promote himself...
...now writing whining commentaries for an online publication claiming that arson and fantasy allegations of "persecution" is related to the truth being told about Mormons on the Internet (he didn't use the word "truth", but take away his spin, and that's what he's insinuating)
So we have propagandists like West who apparently would like truth about Mormons on the Internet to either be diminished, or like the Nauvoo Expositor, be squelched away. And worse, he pulls the trick out of the liberal hat that if you speak negative about anything, it leads to...
...you name it...
...People for the American Way says it leads to book burning...
...or it leads to brick dismantling...
...or it leads to abortion clinics being torched...
...or worse, violence and persecution.
That's a liberal tactic, PD, and I'm surprised Mormons have failed to hold their own to some accountability. (Like perhaps this propagandist needs to have a private discussion with his bishop since he's not doing any favors for Mormon PR...with him around, no wonder Lds have been skittish for so long about wanting to only provide links to official Lds sites...except for the newer Mormons like you PD)
Of course, he depicts no actual examples of "persecution." Case in point: we don't know who that Washington state arsonist was.
This is simply a reminder that since we don't know who has done what in these kinds of criminal cases, we cannot draw premature conclusions like this lds propagandist has done--or like others have done in recent threads...that we need to wait for police to do their investigations and arrest processes before we draw any conclusions.
Tell me color... are you one of those people that thinks that the U.S. brought 9/11 upon itself?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.