Police issue arrest warrant for Louisiana pastor Tony Spell, who defied stay-at-home orders to have in-person services, over incident with a protestor

• Police issued an arrest warrant for Tony Spell, the Louisiana pastor who refused to stop in-person services, on a charge of aggravated assault, local news outlets reported.
• Spell is accused of backing a church bus in the direction of a protester on Sunday.
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Police issued an arrest warrant for Tony Spell, a Louisiana pastor who defied stay-at-home orders to host in-person services, on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to local outlet WAFB9.

Spell, the pastor at Life Tabernacle Church in Central, Louisiana, is accused of backing up a "church bus into the direction of a person protesting in front of Spell's church Sunday," WAFB reported.

A video of the incident shows the truck coming very close to hitting Trey Bennett, who was protesting in front of the church but stopped.

Spell told WAFB he just wanted to get out of the bus and "confront the protestor," but his wife convinced him not to.

"That man has been in front of my church driveway for three weeks now. He shoots people obscene finger gestures and shouts vulgarities," Spell told WAFB.

Bennet told WAFB that he never used profanity or obscene gesture and that he holds signs as he protests. One of those signed read "CAUTION: Coronavirus incubator. Do not enter. You may die."

Police previously charged Spell with six misdemeanors when he was accused of refusing to stop in-person services despite stay-at-home orders due to the novel coronavirus that causes the disease known as COVID-19.

According to The Advocate, one of Spell's congregants died, and a lawyer hired to represent the church had been hospitalized after both tested positive for COVID-19. While it's unknown where they caught the virus, Spell claimed the coroner's determination that the congregant died from coronavirus was "a lie."

Following the warrant issued on Monday, central police chief Roger Corcoran told NBC that they expect that Spell will turn himself in on Tuesday morning.

"Earlier today, Chief Roger Corcoran with Central Police Department issued a warrant for the arrest of Mark Anthony Spell (AKA: Tony Spell), Pastor of Life Tabernacle Church, for aggravated assault based on video evidence of an incident that occurred on April 19, 2020," a police department spokesman told WAFB.

Corcoran also told NBC that "local authorities are trying to enforce the law and insisted Spell isn't being denied his freedom to practice religion."

"They're trying to make a mockery of this, like he's some kind of victim," Corcoran told NBC. "No one, not one person, is trying to stop him from preaching the word."

According to WAFB, there's a second warrant for someone else who tried to swerve their truck onto a protestor standing in the road.