Police are investigating if a church in the San Diego metropolitan area was the victim of a hate crime when vulgar, satanic graffiti was spray-painted on the building.
The vandalism took place at about 3 a.m. Sunday when two people with backpacks and spray cans were seen on surveillance video getting out of a car and lingering around South Bay Pentecostal Church.
The church’s executive pastor, Amado Huizar, told NBC 7 he thinks the church was targeted with satanic symbols because of its recent public opposition to an event at a local public library where drag queens read books to children.
“We’ve stood up the last several weeks to share our concern regarding the upcoming drag queen story hour. We feel that maybe, perhaps, those two are connected,” Huizar said.
Huizar added he was “heartbroken” when he got the phone call about the incident.
Police say there has been no evidence so far to support Huizar’s theory.
South Bay Alliance, the group that hosted “Drag Queen Storytime,” condemned the vandalism.
“It has no place in any political dialogue. I sincerely hope it was not in response to their position on the storytime, but if it was, it is extremely inappropriate,” the group said in a statement.
