Hall County District Attorney Lee Darragh said Wednesday he wants to charge a 16-year-old Gainesville High School student as an adult for her planned attack on Bethel AME Church.
His office has petitioned Hall County Juvenile Court to transfer the case to Superior Court, Darragh said in an email to news organizations.
The student has been charged with criminal attempt to commit murder after the threat against the church was reportedly found in a notebook.
Police Chief Jay Parrish said the investigation showed the church was targeted based on the racial demographics of the church members. The student is a white female, police said.
"They're alarmed,” he said of the congregation. “They want to know, as well as we do, is this over with and what's in store for her going forward. A lot of those answers we don't have."
Members of the church had called for the girl to be tried as an adult. At a news conference Tuesday night in Atlanta, AME Bishop Reginald T. Jackson also called on the Georgia General Assembly to pass hate crime legislation in the next session, which begins in January.
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