JACKSON, Miss. — The Mississippi fire marshal says investigators don’t see politics as the motivation for the burning of an African-American church that was also spray-painted with the words “Vote Trump” a week before the presidential election.

But Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, who is also state fire marshal, says there are signs the vandalism may have been done to appear that way.

A man who is a member of the church and has a prior criminal record was arrested Wednesday and charged with first-degree arson of a place of worship. Andrew McClinton, 45, of Leland, Miss., is scheduled to make an initial court appearance today in Greenville — the city where Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church was burned and vandalized Nov. 1.

Officials have not revealed a possible motive.

“We do not believe it was politically motivated. There may have been some efforts to make it appear politically motivated,” Chaney said.

Hopewell Bishop Clarence Green said McClinton, who is African-American, is a member of the church. Green said he didn’t know about the arrest until he was called by the AP.

“This is the first I have heard of it,” said Green, who said he was attending to other church duties and didn’t have time for a longer interview.

It was not clear whether McClinton has an attorney.

Mississippi Department of Corrections records show McClinton was sentenced in 1991 to three years’ probation for a grand larceny conviction in Washington County, where Greenville is the county seat. His probation was revoked in 1992 for receiving stolen property in Greenville, said Department of Corrections spokesman Grace Simmons Fisher.

Hopewell was founded in 1905 in the heart of an African-American neighborhood. The congregation has about 200 members.