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Tampa Pastor Arrested For Ignoring COVID-19 Preventatives
A Tampa Bay Area pastor has been arrested for continually holding church services despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisements concerning the COVID-19 outbreak.
Hillsborough County Sheriff, Chad Chronister, announced at a conference Monday that the Pastor of The River at Tampa Bay Church, Dr. Ronald Howard-Browne, will be arrested for unlawful assembly and violation of public health emergency rules, both second degree misdemeanors.
“Announcing the arrest of Dr. Ronald Howard-Browne, Pastor of The River at Tampa Bay Church, who intentionally and repeatedly disregarded state and local public health orders, which put his congregation and our community in danger.” Chronister said via Twitter.
In an outside press conference, Sheriff Chronister along side State Attorney Andrew Warren and Bishop Thomas Scott, said the office received an anonymous tip that Howard-Browne was in violation of a Florida executive order which limits gatherings to less than 10 people as well as the Hillsborough County Safer-At-Home Order which states “all residents are directed to stay at home as much as possible twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.”
“Make no mistake, this issue is about the health and safety of our community,” Warren said. “Putting your parishioners at…
