‘Black Bloc’ profile: Brian Church allegedly asked ever see a “cop on fire”?
BY NATASHA KORECKI, FRANK MAIN AND KIM JANSSEN Staff Reporters May 19, 2012 4:56PM
Brian Church, 20, of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Chicago Police Department)
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Updated: July 1, 2012 12:29PM
Brian Church was allegedly at a “safe house” in Bridgeport on Wednesday, helping make Molotov cocktails — filling empty beer bottles with gasoline and cutting bandanas to serve as wicks. Church, 22, of Fort Lauderdale, had a question for his accomplices, prosecutors said. Had they ever seen a “cop on fire?” he allegedly asked, suggesting they toss one of the homemade firebombs into the Deering District police station at 3120 S. Halsted in the Bridgeport neighborhood. Prosecutors cast Church as the ringleader of a trio of “domestic terrorists” bent on putting a violent stamp on the NATO Summit. He allegedly said he wanted to recruit 16 people — split into four cells — to conduct the attacks. But Church’s mother said she’s sure her son is innocent. “These are totally trumped up charges,” she said. “I think it’s retaliatory of the police.” She said her son texted her about Chicago Police officers stopping a car he was in before the bust. Lawyers for the defendants have posted the video on the Web. “Have you seen it?” she said. “They threaten every one of them.” Church’s mom said he went to college and trained as an emergency medical technician. Now he’s studying to become a paramedic, she said. “He loves to stand up for what’s right, no matter what anybody else says,” his mother said. Sarah Gelsomino, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild, said Church and the other two defendants knew each other through the Occupy movement.
