A Point Pleasant man faces a felony ethnic intimidation charge after allegedly sending death threats and racial slurs to a Baptist church deacon.

Robert Maschock Jr., 61, kept sending threatening text messages even after a Buckingham Township police officer told him to stop, according to a probable cause affidavit cited by the Bucks County Courier Times, which first reported the arrest.

Maschock was arraigned Friday, Sept. 18, before Magisterial District Judge Timothy Barton on the felony ethnic intimidation count and related misdemeanor charges. He is being held at Bucks County Correctional Facility on $20,000 bail.

Buckingham Police opened the investigation after a deacon at a Plumstead church reported receiving threatening texts from a new congregation member, the Courier Times reported. The deacon provided police with messages that allegedly began late on Wednesday, Sept. 16, and continued into the next day.

In the first message, sent shortly before 11 p.m., Maschock allegedly threatened to kill the deacon and wrote that it was his personal agenda "to kill Muslims in the United States," the affidavit states, according to the Courier Times. Arrest paperwork listed Maschock's race as white.

Subsequent messages allegedly continued the death threats and included racial slurs against Black Americans. Shortly after 7 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17, the deacon received a text that began as an apology. Maschock allegedly said the earlier messages were sent by mistake, but the same text went on to use racial slurs, according to the affidavit.

A Buckingham police officer spoke to Maschock later that day and told him he was no longer allowed at the church and must stop contacting the deacon. Minutes later, Maschock allegedly sent another threatening text, and the messages continued for several more hours, the Courier Times reported.

Under Pennsylvania law, ethnic intimidation is an add-on charge graded one degree higher than the underlying offense. A misdemeanor terroristic-threat charge motivated by racial or religious hatred, for example, would carry a felony-level ethnic intimidation count.

Maschock had no legal representation listed on the public court docket as of Sept. 18. No preliminary hearing date has been announced.