Huntingtown church property vandalized

Friday, May 9, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by DARWIN WEIGEL Four juveniles have been charged with vandalism at an abandoned house owned by Bethel Way of the Cross Church in Huntingtown. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

The vandals sprayed ‘‘swastika signs, pentagrams, racial graffiti and wrote profanity all over the walls, carpet and ceilings of the church property,” Church Elder Charles Hall wrote in a letter to the newspaper.

‘‘They painted a picture of Jesus Christ on the wall, and stuck a metal knife in his heart,” he wrote.

Maryland State Police Sgt. Al Paton said they saw nothing to lead them to believe that it was a hate crime. There was a symbol resembling a swastika with a circle around it and a line through it like the ‘‘not” symbol, he said. And he was not aware of a painting of Jesus with a knife in his heart, but said there was figure spray painted that looked like a ‘‘gingerbread man,” Paton said.

‘‘If we thought for a second that this was a hate crime we would have done something about it.

‘‘It was silly graffiti and kids stuff,” he said.

Many different words, some relating to drugs and with sexual connotations, were spray painted throughout the house, Paton said. They spray painted a bunch of nonsense, he said.

The two juvenile males and two juvenile females were arrested and charged with malicious destruction of property, first-degree burglary and trespassing, Paton said.

‘‘They tore up the place pretty good,” he said, adding that it looked like they had been there several times.

The property allegedly broken into and vandalized by the juveniles is a brick rambler located next door to the church, Hall said. The vandals took hammers and busted holes in the walls everywhere, Hall said.

In mid March about 9 a.m. church deacon Alvin Jones saw a pick-up truck parked in the driveway of the home next to the church and called 911 and the police came, Hall said.

The juveniles were caught carrying furniture out of the house by Jones and the police, he said.

‘‘They knew we were on to them so they were taking the furniture,” Hall said. Church members suspected that someone had broken into the house before and Hall and Minister Jerome Brooks noticed the sliding door in the back open a few days earlier. The church members were keeping an eye on the house, Hall said.

The police found cigarette butts, a gas heater and a mattress and took pictures of all the destruction, Hall said.

Maryland State Police Lt. Homer Rich said that the place looked like it had been used over and over, like someone was living there.

‘‘I did not see desecration,” Rich said of the property, and he said he was unaware of the spray painting of racial slurs and the swastika signs.

These juveniles are in need of parental supervision, he said. They were being stupid and skipping school, he added.