UPDATE: The record of the individual arrested in conjunction with an August 12 attack on three statues at Our Lady of the Lake Church has been expunged. We have deleted his name and police sketch from the original report on his arrest.
[Name Deleted], has been charged with third-degree criminal mischief and was released on a summons. He is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Newark on August 29 .
According to the VPD, Officer Michael Barone, Lt. Chris Kiernan, and Officer Anthony Condorelli initially responded to the report of someone damaging the statues of Mary, Jesus and Saint John. Sergeants Dan Greco and Michael Harrington investigated and a search warrant later uncovered a hammer believed to have been used in the attack. The VPD said Essex County police aided in the investigation and the New Jersey State Police helped produce a sketch of the suspect.
The attack knocked off part of Mary’s face and Saint John’s nose, and hit the statue of Jesus so many times that part of its lower left leg was knocked off. The police had been treating the incident as a bias crime because when the witness called on the attacker to stop, he ran away shouting what the police described as anti-religious statements, saying in part, “I don’t worship statues.”
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