Suspect accused of spray-painting churches has history of mental-health issues and a name change

A string of vandalism incidents, all of which involved spray-painting doors and sidewalks at buildings all over metro Birmingham, has a back story that’s even more mysterious than the strange word that the suspect painted.

Eja Cree, 31, of Center Point was arrested Friday afternoon by Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputies, and charged with first-degree criminal mischief. The charge is for an incident at Mountain View Baptist Church near Clay, but that church is one of many that were hit in the same manner. In addition, one house in North Birmingham and a business in Pinson were hit — all with the word “memeneusha,” a word which has no apparent meaning to anyone but the suspect.

It’s a strange turn in the saga of Cree, who moved to the Pleasant Grove area from northern Illinois. It was in Pleasant Grove that Cree was better known by his birth name, Aaron Love. He played high school football there — one year in eight-man football at the now-defunct Garywood Christian School in Hueytown, then a year for Pleasant Grove High. After graduation, he played briefly for Miles College in Fairfield.

Steve Birmingham owns a company in Pinson which builds metal buildings. He’s also the husband of Love’s aunt, and was the head football coach at Garywood Christian. (He now coaches at Kingwood Christian School in Alabaster.)

Birmingham, whose offices were hit in the vandalism spree, said that Love had been under treatment for mental issues over a number of years.

“We first had him committed to [the psychiatric unit at] Brookwood Hospital,” Birmingham said. “He had been hearing voices in his head for some time. He would go on medication, and they wouldn’t stop the voices, but he could at least cope with them. Then he’d think he was okay and go off his meds, and it would start all over again.”

Birmingham said Love had served in the Air Force Reserves for a time and worked out of a local union hall. But as his condition worsened, Love could not work and went on disability payments.

“He’d sit around his apartment and watch all of those crazy YouTube videos all day,” Birmingham said.

Love, who legally changed his name to Cree two years ago, later made a rambling video of his own that was filled with accusations of government conspiracies.

Birmingham said that Love lived with his family for a while in high school, then was taken in by foster parents. Their Pleasant Grove house was one of the places that Cree is accused of vandalizing, going from there to Garywood Assembly of God, the parent church of the now-closed school. Numerous other churches between those two locations were also hit.

The vandalism then moved to Birmingham’s office on Pinson Valley Parkway near Carson Road, and then to the north and east. Solid Rock Church, located about a mile north of Birmingham’s office, was hit.

The path of vandalism continued through Clay and Trussville, and apparently ended at Church of the Highlands’ main campus in Irondale.

“He wasn’t trying to hurt anyone. He said the word means, ‘Jesus is coming,’” Birmingham said. “He was just trying to let everyone know.”

Birmingham said that Cree first hit his stepson’s home in North Birmingham on Thursday. When the stepson saw what happened, he tried to get another committal order from the judge who had previously handled Cree’s case — but that didn’t happen in time to stop Friday’s incidents.

Cree was still held in the Jefferson County Jail as of Monday afternoon, with Birmingham trying to get him moved to a mental facility for further treatment.

[Disclosure: NJN Associate Editor Robert Carter, who wrote this story, worked with Steve Birmingham at Garywood Christian School during the time that Cree — then Aaron Love — was a football player.]