Hate-filled vandal bashes Brooklyn Catholic church statues with brick

NEW YORK — A vandal bashed two religious statues with a brick at a Brooklyn Catholic church, leaving them damaged, police said.

The attacker, wearing an orange headscarf, used the brick to smash off the hands of a statue of the Virgin Mary in the courtyard of St. Therese of Lisieux Church on Avenue D near Troy Avenue in East Flatbush about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, cops said.

He then ran up to another statue, believed to be of St. Therese, and broke off a cross she was holding, cops said.

On Wednesday, cops released surveillance footage of the suspect smoking a cigarette and sporting a black backpack as he walked past the church. The NYPD is asking the public’s help identifying him and tracking him down.

It was at least the third time in a month a vandal had attacked a Catholic Church within the five boroughs.

In an incident strikingly similar to Tuesday’s vandalism, a bearded man in a red T-shirt and white baseball cap used a rock to lop off the hands of a Virgin Mary statue outside the rectory of Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church on Parsons Blvd. in Jamaica, Queens on Sept. 24. The man also repeatedly struck the head of the statue with the rock.

Father Victor M. Bolaños, Pastor of Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, managed to recover the broken-off hands, which were steepled in prayer.

“The only [thing] that is broken is the hands,” Father Bolaños said. “The rest is damaged. I have the hands.”

On Oct. 6, a hate-filled vandal scrawled shocking profanity and defaced several statues at Manhattan’s St. Frances Cabrini Shrine on Fort Washington Ave. near W. 190th St. — just outside Fort Tryon Park — in Washington Heights.

The vandal wrote profanity directed at Jesus Christ along with several bizarre symbols on a church wall with black spray paint. Another symbol was painted on a statue of St. Frances Cabrini as the vandal covered her face with paint.

The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the three desecrations, which are not believed to be linked.

Anyone with information regarding the East Flatbush church incident or the two other acts of vandalism is urged to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.