A neo-Nazi who allegedly used molotov cocktails to attempt to burn down an Ohio church hosting a drag queen event had been spewing anti-LGBTQ hate with his White Lives Matter group just weeks earlier.
On March 25, Aimenn D. Penny, 20, of Alliance, Ohio, targeted the Community Church in Chesterland, Ohio, with arson, according to an FBI affidavit. The door was scorched, and the church’s sign was smashed. The FBI says that two bottles of alcohol filled with what appeared to be clothes stuck in them were recovered from the scene. They also found a plastic bottle filled with gasoline near the door.
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Penny was arrested on March 31 and charged with malicious use of explosive materials and possessing a destructive device.
At the time, the church was the subject of animus by the far-right, including threats and hate mail, for a drag show that took place on April 1. Despite police pressure to cancel the event, the organizers refused to cancel, and the event went on successfully with little far-right pushback.
Penny is a member of the Ohio chapter of White Lives Matter, a white supremacist network with chapters across the United States and internationally that frequently posters towns in Nazi slogans and counter-protests at Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ events.
Following Penny’s arrest, White Lives Matter Ohio, however, issued a statement on their Telegram channels saying they “don’t condone violence.”
“Any one person not acting in line with the manual is not part of WLM,” it reads. “The manual” is a PDF the group makes new members read that encourages Nazis to spread their hate via stickers and marches.
The FBI affidavit, however, paints Penny as an active member of White Lives Matter. On March 11, he allegedly traveled an anti-LGBTQ protest in Wadsworth, Ohio, where he handed out racist and anti-LGBTQ propaganda while dressed in military garb. And last October, Alliance, Ohio police stopped Penny as he was putting fliers featuring anti-Black propaganda on parked cars.
The White Lives Matter group even used footage of the March 11 event as propaganda. In a flashy edited video, the alleged arsonist and others put flyers on vehicles, hand out the flyers, and drive around with masks overlaid with heavy metal music. The video, which is still available on the group’s social media pages, ends with a photo of five members, including Penny, putting up a Nazi salute.
Video taken by independent journalist Ford Fisher shows Penny using a megaphone to give a speech at the Mach 11 event. In the footage Penny goes on an anti-semitic rant about how the Nazis burned books with “transgender ideas” and leads the group in a chant. Another clip shows Penny throwing up a Nazi salute in the face of a protestor while fellow White Lives Matter members yell homophobic slurs.
The FBI says that they were tipped off that Penny, who was known to law enforcement, was possibly behind the arson. The feds pulled Penny’s cell phone location data and it indicated he was near the church at the suspected time of the arson. They then executed a search warrant on Penny’s home, and he told the authorities that he built the bombs “with the intent to burn the structure.”
“Penny stated that he was trying to protect children and stop the drag show event,” reads the affidavit. “Penny stated that night he became more and more angry after watching internet videos of news feeds and drag shows in France and decided to attack the church. Penny stated that he would have felt better if the Molotov cocktails were more effective and burned the entire church to the ground.”
He also allegedly told police that he was looking forward to an ensuing race war. According to the affidavit, Penny “expressed his belief that the United States will not prosper until all the other races, or ‘weaknesses’ as he called them, are gone.”
Police found a handwritten manifesto, a Nazi flag, Nazi memorabilia, a White Lives Matter of Ohio T-shirt, a gas mask, and a gas canister in Penny’s home.
Drag queen events and the LGBTQ community have been in the crosshairs of the far-right for some time now with drag queen events frequently being protested. Often the anti-LGBTQ groups are joined by neo-Nazis affiliated with a wide array of groups.
Penny faces decades in prison. He has yet to appear in court or issue a plea.
