AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – For nearly two centuries, one church in Augusta has stood as both a spiritual home and a cornerstone of Black history.

Trinity Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, known as Mother Trinity, helped shape not only a denomination but generations of faith, leadership and culture. As the historic structure undergoes renovation, its story continues to inspire a new chapter.

Early beginnings under brush arbor

In 1840, before brick walls stood, faith did. That marked the beginning of Trinity CME Church, when 125 enslaved and free African Americans made a bold move to form their own place of worship, breaking away from St. John Methodist Church, a white church.

“They wanted to start their own congregation, so they marched to the new location and began worshipping under a brush arbor,” said Erik Montgomery, a local historian with Historic Augusta.

What started as a simple roof held up by tent poles became one of the earliest and most influential churches in the Christian Methodist Episcopal denomination.

“Trinity was the very first one, the mother church in the C.M.E. denomination, certainly in Georgia,” Montgomery said.

Place of refuge and dignity

Founded decades before the Emancipation Proclamation, Mother Trinity was viewed as a place of refuge and dignity.

“If you can imagine, where can I go to worship God and not sit in the balcony or be considered a second-class citizen? A church would allow that,” Montgomery said. Trinity was that place, and that same legacy lives inside Trinity’s current location on Glenn Hills Drive. The history of the original church is mounted along the walls there, with pictures telling the story of perseverance spread across generations. “Saving and preserving this historical and sacred treasure honors what matters most in our history. It honors our heritage and even our identity as African Americans,” said the Rev. Dr. Tommie Benjamin, current pastor of Trinity CME Church.

Connection to higher education

Local historian Joyce Law explained the connection of the C.M.E. church to colleges. she said the genesis of higher education sponsored by the C.M.E. church began with the incomparable interracial collaborative efforts with the local M.E. Church, South in 1882 to establish Paine College.

According to Law, the successful concept led to the organization and sustainment of Lane College in Nashville, Tennessee; Miles College in Birmingham, Alabama; and Texas College in Tyler, Texas, all before the end of the 19th century. Each of these institutions has produced a long list of regional and national leaders.

Environmental contamination forces move

Preserving that heritage came with a fight, beginning with where the church was built. The structure originally stood across the street from a gas plant where decades of coal burning contaminated the soil.

“They determined that this was unhealthy. It was getting to the point where it might reach the water table,” Montgomery said.

Montgomery said these gas plants weren’t just in Augusta but were in every community in the country. In Georgia, they were owned by Atlanta Gas Light, which started buying out property owners affected by contamination.

“Chief of which was Mother Trinity right across the street. They held on for a long time. Finally, they sold the property to Atlanta Gas Light,” Montgomery said.

Atlanta Gas Light tried to save the church. In 2003, the company performed a decontamination project on the church’s foundation. It forced members to vacate the building, but the project failed and the church has sat empty since then, moving worshippers to their current location on Glenn Hills Drive.

“So, I got involved and the director at that time of the Augusta Canal Authority got involved and in the end we basically prevailed. The building had to be moved,” Montgomery said.

Remarkable relocation saves sacred space

It was a remarkable move that captured headlines, saving a sacred space that many feared would be lost forever. Today the Augusta Canal Authority owns the building.

Leaders there are working to restore it, asking the community for ideas for what’s next while ensuring the history lives on. The current pastor of Trinity, the Rev. Dr. Tommie Benjamin, has sat in on those meetings.

“There were a lot of ideas thrown out but the thing that struck me the most, was making it some kind of tourism. Where people can come in and see the actual physical structure, see some historical artifacts and even bring the families in and just see the story of Trinity or hear the story of Trinity how it was established back in 1840 and how its rich heritage that still stands with us very strongly today,” Benjamin said.

Personal mission for current pastor

For Benjamin, carrying that story forward is deeply personal.

“As the 40th pastor here at Trinity, I stand on the shoulders of giants. Carrying the baton in this season is both a sacred honor and a deep blessing,” Benjamin said.

It’s a legacy leaders hope will continue to inspire the next generation.

“When young people learn about Mother Trinity, I hope they’ll discover what our ancestors knew — that faith in God makes the impossible possible,” Benjamin said.

Copyright 2026 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.

More complaints were filed against D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department in 2025 than ever before, the News4 I-Team has learned. Weekly complaints increased after federal officers and agents surged into the city in August, often working side by side with D.C. police officers.

The head of a charter school in D.C. filed a complaint after federal immigration authorities and D.C. officers questioned two young men outside her school, in view of students. A comment by one D.C. officer was especially damaging. Months later, the educator and officer met in a mediation session and found some common ground.

As D.C.’s Bilingual Public Charter School in Fort Totten was dismissing students on Sept. 25, a caravan of federal authorities and D.C. police arrived and questioned two men who were not connected to the school.

“I went out there right away. This is my school, and I’m going to protect it, and I’m going to make sure all the kids are safe,” school CEO Daniela Anello told News4.

Cellphone video shows the encounter as the two men in handcuffs sat on a curb.

“If you do not get on the sidewalk, you’ll be arrested for failure to obey a traffic officer,” one D.C. officer warns people gathering.

“Can you tell us what they’re being arrested for?” a woman asks.

“It’s none of your business,” a D.C. officer replies.

It was an incident – among many reported by News4 last year – in which federal immigration authorities took someone into custody alongside D.C. police.

“Do you see who’s watching you? These are children that you’re doing this in front of!” a woman yells.

At one point, a D.C. officer made this comment: “If you have such a problem with us, don’t call 911 next time.”

Anello thought he went too far and his message clashed with what she teaches her students.

“That was very puzzling to me, because we’ve taught our kids over and over: If there’s something harmful, dangerous or scary, you call 911 and the police will come and help you. So that was very upsetting,” she said.

The stop eventually ended when the men were taken into custody.

‘Students cried, asking their parents if they too would be taken away’

The encounter led to several complaints against D.C. police. Concerned about what her students and staff had witnessed, Anello filed a complaint. She also wrote Mayor Muriel Bowser but said she never heard back. News4 reached out to Bowser’s office too.

She did hear from then-Chief of Police Pamela Smith after speaking out at public meetings and testifying before the D.C. Council.

“Students cried, asking their parents if they too would be taken away,” Anello said at a round table.

She filed her complaint with D.C.’s Office of Police Complaints (OPC), an independent agency that investigates complaints against officers in the District. It was one of 1,065 complaints received last year, according to the agency. While complaints are not always found to be misconduct, this is the most complaints the office has received in a year.

“I was complaining about how the police responded in a moment of high stress outside of the school community when kids and staff and community members are watching,” Anello said.

Rebuilding community trust in police

In an interview with the I-Team, OPC Director Marke Cross said he wasn’t surprised 2025 was a record year for complaints.

“We expected there would be a lot more complaints about stops and searches and frisks and things like that,” he said.

Cross said he can’t be sure why there was an increase in complaints; that analysis is ongoing. But he said it points to a level of trust in police that may need to be rebuilt.

“The topic of community trust in the police department in D.C. has a long history,” he said.

News4 asked if 2025 was a particularly hard year for community trust.

“Um, yes. Yes, it has been,” he replied.

A News4 analysis of OPC data shows a 17% increase in weekly complaints after the federal surge began in August. That included allegations on intimidation, property mishandling, and officer language and conduct.

Alicia Yass, who now works for the ACLU, previously served as OPC’s deputy director.

“I think they should be trying to do better. I mean, all of us should always be trying to do better at our jobs. This is not just the police, but the police are being given evidence of what they could be doing better,” she said.

Cross said investigators review and investigate every complaint – reviewing witness statements, body-worn camera video and police reports. After that, only a very small percentage of complaints are upheld. Anello’s was among those.

News4 asked her how much trust-building she thought D.C. police need to do.

“Oh, a lot,” she replied.

School leader describes her mediation session with officer who snapped at crowd

Months after Anello filed her complaint with OPC, she was offered mediation with the officer who snapped at the crowd that day, telling them not to call 911 if they had a problem with police. Their two-hour session was confidential, according to the agency’s rules, but she shared how it felt for her.

“I can say that I received the apology that I was seeking,” she said.

News4 asked, how did that feel?

“Amazing,” she said. “To feel that there was the connection between what I would have wanted to have happened and the police officer’s realization of, ‘Yes, I could have done this better.’ That connected us.”

While OPC can’t take direct disciplinary action against officers, it can make recommendations to D.C. police. There is no automatic mention of the OPC process in an officer’s police personnel file.

But at a time when police and community relations need rebuilding, Anello still believes there’s value in the process and said she hopes her complaint and the hundreds of others this year will change police behavior.

“We had a moment of, ‘You care, I care. We’re both professionals. We’re both trying to keep our communities safe. We’re just going about it in slightly different ways with different roles,’” she said.

OPC’s director said the agency plans to make recommendations to MPD soon based on last year’s complaints, including on the impact of the federal surge.

Interim Chief of Police Jeffery Carroll declined to talk with News4 on camera. We also asked for an interview with the officer who Anello met with; he declined.

An MPD spokesperson said the department hasn’t been briefed about the rise in complaints but plans to provide a more detailed strategy for community outreach in the coming months.

The department said in a statement: “There is nothing more important to MPD than maintaining the trust of DC residents, and we appreciate our community’s partnership and support of our efforts to drive significant reductions in crime over the last two years.

MPD leadership is committed to listening to community concerns, and that’s why our leaders regularly attend Advisory Neighborhood Commission meetings, why MPD has a Citizens Advisory Council, and why we regularly host community walks in all seven police districts. We understand the need to enhance outreach districtwide to ensure we are maintaining trust.”

A Maryland lawmaker is proposing a bill that would authorize the Maryland attorney general and state police to gather identifying digital data about agents who are the subject of misconduct complaints. News4’s Mauricio Casillas reports.

Sign up for our free deep-dive newsletter, The 4Front, to get standout News4 stories sent right to your inbox. Subscribe here.