Police Question Suspect In Religious Vandalism In Bay Ridge
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - A person is being questioned in connection with a series of incidents that targeted religious sites overnight in Bay Ridge, police said.
Statues were covered in red paint and the word "No" was painted on doors of various locations. The NYPD hate crimes task force was called in Tuesday to investigate eight incidents.
Police Question Suspect In Religious Vandalism In Bay Ridge
"He was wearing the same clothes and he was arrested by a police officer based on that observation, happened to be near a hardware store," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said on Tuesday.
The sites hit include Union Church of Bay Ridge, Holy Cross Greek Church, Bay Ridge Jewish Center, St. Anselm's Roman Catholic Church and St. Mary's Antiochian Church.
The word "No" was painted on the entrance to the Jewish center and on the doors of the Holy Cross Greek Church and Bay Ridge Union Church.
The statues of Jesus on the cross and Mary at St. Anselm's were covered almost entirely in red paint.
"I'm heartbroken because I come here all the time," a parishioner at St. Anselm's told 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria.
The Bay Ridge Preparatory School was also spray painted.
"There is different color paint, whatever that means. There was green that was used, I believe in Washington's [graffiti vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial]. Whether or not there's a connection obviously is something we're looking at," Kelly added.
Tune in to CBS 2 News tonight at 5 p.m. for more on this story.
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