Police Investigate Tacoma Church Damage as Possible Hate Crime
Police Investigate Tacoma Church Damage as Possible Hate Crime
Tacoma police were investigating a possible hate crime Tuesday that happened at Tacoma’s Holy Cross Catholic Church during Christmas Eve Mass.
Six windows were broken and possible hate-related paperwork was left at the scene in the 5500 block of North 44th Street, officers said, and a suspect was seen fleeing.
Some of the papers left appeared to be “anti-church,” police spokesman Naveed Benjamin said.
Holy Cross has a court order against a suspect who has vandalized the building several times, police say, and the Christmas Eve suspect was seen heading in the direction of the suspect’s nearby house.
“It’s no secret that there’s somebody that has some kind of ongoing problem with the church,” Benjamin said, though he added that officers had not confirmed that the latest incident is connected to the previous ones.