Crime may be a fixture in life, but its numbing regularity is no antidote for the civic pain spurred by shockingly brutal and senseless crimes. The horrific beating death 10 days ago of the Rev. David Strong, apparently in an attempted robbery, provides an example of such pain.
The 55-year-old minister had been pastor for 10 years of the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church on Williams Street, where he had worked, among other things, to steer impoverished young people away from crime and gangs. Members of his church will gather for a prayer service tonight to reflect on his life and ministry.
His death at his home on Glenwood Drive, police believe, apparently came in a home invasion on Oct. 4 at the hands of two young men. One reportedly had known the minister four years. The defendants allegedly used a stick, vase and knife to assault and torture Strong to force him to reveal a PIN number for his debit card so they could raid his bank account.
Police have arrested Antonio Henry, 25, and his cousin, Brendan Barnes, 16, and charged them with felony murder in the slaying. Their arrest Monday came after Henry’s mother called police on Oct. 5 to report that her son was driving a PT Cruiser without a license, and without any knowledge on her part as to how he got the car.
“I asked my son three times where the car came from, and he told me three different stories,” Henry’s mother, Anita Burgis, told this newspaper’s police reporter, Todd South. Police apprehended Barnes Sunday morning while he was driving the PT Cruiser. It turned out to be the Rev. Strong’s car.
Chattanooga Assistant Police Chief Tim Carroll said Monday that police tried to contact Strong after they arrested Henry, but got no response. They subsequently went to the pastor’s home, where they found his badly mangled, decomposing body lying face down in the hallway. His hands and feet were tied. He had been beaten and stabbed, and his throat had been cut.