Fire destroys church recently bought by white supremacist

A church in North Dakota was destroyed in a fire just weeks after it was bought by a well-known white supremacist who has previously tried to set up a whites-only enclave in another part of the state.

Craig Cobb, who has been labeled by the Southern Poverty Law Center as "an itinerant" neo-Nazi, was listed as the partial owner of the building that was once known as Zion Lutheran Church in Nome, North Dakota. The church was razed by the time the firefighters arrived at approximately 4:25 p.m. on Wednesday, MyNDNow reported.

The Attorney General's Office stated that there is no new information about the incident, but Cobb insisted that the church was set on fire intentionally.

Cobb said that the fire was "100 percent arson" and noted that both the gas and electric utilities were off, so it could not have been accidental. He has offered a $2,000 reward to anyone who can provide information related to the incident.

"I was going to turn it over to the creativity movement with a stipulation that that branch of the church be called the Donald J. Trump...President Donald J. Trump, Creativity Church of Rome, not Nome, Rome. A little play on history there you see," Cobb told KVRR.

He recounted that he planned to deliver furniture to the church that same day, but he did not make the trip.

He also expressed his plans to ask the DOJ and the FBI to consider the incident as a hate crime.

Cobb had been arrested in November 2013 for terrorizing the residents of Leith, North Dakota when he patrolled the town with a gun. He maintained that he brandished the gun in response to violence and harassment directed toward him.

When he moved to the town over four years ago, he bought a house and 12 other lots in an attempt to set up a white supremacist enclave. He urged other white supremacists to join him in order to create a voting majority in the town of about two dozen residents.

In February 2014, Cobb pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor menacing accounts and one felony terrorizing charge. He no longer owns any property in Leith, according to Daily Mail.

Jerome Jankowski, who lives directly south of the church, said that no one was happy about Cobb's arrival in Nome.

"Everyone has some form of prejudice, but this guy is way off the edge and he fell off," he said.