New York City suspects smash angel statue taken from Queens church
New York City Police searching for three suspects following March 23 incident. (Credit: NYPD/LOCAL NEWS X/TMX)
New York City Police are searching Monday for three young suspects captured on video smashing an angel statue outside a Catholic Church.
The incident happened at the Holy Family Church in the city’s Queens borough on March 23. Police have described the suspects as three males, approximately 15 to 17 years of age.
"People are hurt because this is their property and this is their church," Father Sean Suckiel told Fox5 NY following the incident.
Surveillance video released by police shows three individuals walking along a street behind the church before two of them reach over a fence to grab an angel statue.
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Two of the suspects are seen removing an angel statue from the Holy Family Church in Queens on March 23 before one tosses it onto the street. (NYPD)
One of the individuals then is seen heaving the statue onto the street, causing parts of it to break off.
The suspects, who are wanted for criminal mischief, fled the area on foot, according to police.
Investigators say the incident caused around $500 in property damage and that the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is looking into it.
The statue was a donation from parishioners, Fox5 NY reported, citing police.
Investigators later released more images of the suspects in hopes that the public can help identify them.
Since May 2020, there have been nearly 300 attacks against U.S. Catholic churches since May 2020, Fox News Digital reported in January.
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The statue is later seen damaged while lying on the street behind the Holy Family Church in the city’s Queens borough. (NYPD)
The attacks against churches include arson, broken windows, decapitated statues and satanic graffiti, according to a tracker from the nonprofit CatholicVote.
More than 100 of the incidents were logged since the May 2022 leak of the draft Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade's federal abortion protections.
While some of the attacks involved theft, the "vast majority" of recorded incidents were simply the destruction of property, which the group said indicates "that the primary motive is not material gain."
CatholicVote noted that only 25% of the church attacks it has recorded have led to an arrest.
In November last year, a man accused of vandalizing churches as part of 15 different counts of criminal mischief was released without bail due to New York City's cashless bail laws.
The NYPD has released additional surveillance images of the suspects. (NYPD)
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Video footage from October allegedly showed Juan Velez, 28, throwing a wrench through the window of St. Patrick's Cathedral and fleeing the scene. The cathedral is the residence of Timothy Cardinal Dolan, a prominent Catholic prelate.
A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of New York told Fox News Digital that three people – two staff members and a priest who also live there -- were inside the residence at the time, but Dolan was not. The spokesperson said that no one was hurt at the time.
Fox News’ Jon Brown and Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this report.
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