HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – Hartford police are investigating whether a pastor who was shot while placing flags outside a church for Memorial Day was the victim of a hate crime.
Deputy Police Chief Brian Foley told WVIT-TV that investigators are keeping open the possibility that the shooting of 54-year-old Augustus Sealy of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, on May 24 outside the First Church of Nazarene was a hate crime.
Foley said the church is accepting and open to gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people and comments were made at the crime scene that were hateful toward the LGBT community.
Sealy’s wife says he is expected to recover. Police say he was shot in the right leg and left shoulder.
No arrests have been announced.
Church members planned to hold a vigil against violence May 26.
