Parked behind the house Friday was a gray SUV adorned with a Jesus fish and a vanity license plate that read "PUSHIA."
Property records show Pushia purchased the home in 2006 for $271,000 and transferred the title to the Greater Faith Tabernacle Church of Deliverance.
According to his Web site, Pushia served on the youth ministry for the Maryland Baptist Convention in the late 1990s. He said he received a bachelor's degree from Coppin State College in 2001 and a master's degree from Trinity College and Seminary in 2003 and was pursuing a doctorate.
He wrote that he "fasted and prayed, [and] God lead him in the order of purchasing real estate" to start the Church of Deliverance in the 2600 block of McElderry St., a transaction that he noted was paid in full. The storefront church underwent extensive renovations after settlement in 2003, and it opened for worship on April 3, 2005.
Donna Jones, who lives near the church, said Pushia was active in the community and often tried to recruit people into the church, which had a jetted tub on the second floor for baptisms. She recalled that Pushia once organized a cookout with hamburgers and hot dogs and worked to rebuild the community.
"We're shocked," Jones said. "You'd never think he'd be capable of something like that. Everybody respected him as Pastor Pushia."
Barbara Archer, who rents her McElderry Street home from Pushia, also recalled him as an ambitious young pastor. She was informed recently that she would have to move because the house was being foreclosed on.
In January 2007, a two-alarm fire ripped through the second floor of the church and spread to the roof of a rowhouse. Fire officials could not say whether a cause of the fire was determined at the time, but police said they are meeting with arson investigators to determine whether it was intentionally set.
"It's early in the process, but we want to explore anything like that that he may have been involved with," McLarney said.
Baltimore Sun reporter Michael Dresser contributed to this article.
